Competitiveness: Catching the next wave

China has the opportunity to be a world leader in a number of important areas that will be cornerstones of global growth in the decades to come. This latest report in Deloitte’s competitiveness series aims to put China’s history of growth into broader perspective, and identify key industry sectors that will help power the nation’s “next wave” of sustainable growth.

Once relatively impoverished, isolated, and cut-off from global innovation and technology, China has dramatically re-emerged to become one of the world’s great manufacturing centers, a vital source of global finance, and a vibrant commercial marketplace. But after three decades of rapid growth and transformation, China faces an inflection point. The ingredients that propelled its rapid progression and unprecedented development over the past 30 years won’t fuel its expansion over the next three decades. Instead, China faces an opportunity to transition to a new wave of prosperity. In order to move up the “value chain,” it must evolve from relatively commoditized manufacturing and lower-skilled assembly to a more innovation-based economy, which includes design, logistics, financial and business services, high-tech industries and life sciences. The report also discusses the role of government and the significance of trends identified in economic policies.