Asia’s rise continues as OECD influence declines

China is poised to become the world’s biggest R&D spender by 2020, according to the latest figures from the OECD.

In a report published on 12 November, the OECD predicts that China will overtake the United States in 2019 in terms of absolute spending on R&D. The Asian nation is already on a par with the European Union’s 28 member states combined, with its gross domestic expenditure on R&D reaching $397 billion in 2012, the OECD says.

The rapid rise in China’s spending has contributed to a decline in OECD countries’ proportion of global R&D spending, as China is not a member country. Spending by OECD countries slipped from 90 to 70 per cent of total global expenditure in the 10 years to 2012.