FROM CHEAP LABOR TO HIGH-TECH LEADERSHIP: WILL CHINA'S INVESTMENT IN NANOTECHNOLOGY PAY OFF?

China's rapid industrialization has been largely on the basis of low-cost exports, taking advantage of its vast pool of highly productive low-cost labor. At the same time, China has been heavily investing in high technology, training tens of thousands of engineers in such fields as advanced chip design. More recently, China has been looking to nanotechnology as the next great breakthrough, and is investing an increased amount of public monies in its R&D and eventual commercialization. In this paper we examine Chinese government policy and investment in nanoscience and related technologies, and propose a value chain research strategy to assess its probable impact on the Chinese economy over the next decade.

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