China: just who is catching up with whom?
Some of the lessons the Liverpool contingent have learned this week in Shanghai are salutory, says Dougal Paver.
Followers of this blog will be aware that there's a Paver Smith contingent in Shanghai this week - all part of our contract with Liverpool and its presence at the Shanghai World Expo.
Among the Liverpool group are numerous clients and friends, one of whom sent me an illuminating message this morning. It's worth repeating verbatim:
"I'm leaving a city where they have built 16 universities in eight years. The scale of the property and infrastructure development here is beyond anything I have ever seen. I was told this morning that the new Chinese middle class is larger than the entire population of the USA.
These boys are going up the value chain like a rocket, getting into software, engineering, nano-technology. We're having a laugh about it here, but between the chinese, the Arabs and the Indians the UK is basically a f@%ked, debt-ridden, work-shy economy that belongs to another era. Happy Friday guys!"
That may be a convert's zeal, it may be coloured by the awe of what they've seen, but there's more than a grain of truth in it and the sooner we as a society face up to it - and our politicians show leadership on the issue - the better, I suspect.
As he said, Happy Friday.
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