Europe’s need for emerging economies
Of course, reality is harsh, and truly the limits of absorption capacity of our societies are stretched and sometimes exceeded. On the other hand, we feel that often Europeans do not realise how much we need the rest of the world to prosper and grow, if we want to continue the level of quality of life that we generally have (or at least can aspire to) in our richer and well-organised part of the world. Population growth in the EU is flat or even negative, the age distribution is shifting to more and more elderly people, while at the same time more and more young people go to university expecting to land an attractive highly paid job when they graduate.
Trends towards our future
In our work with major multinational industries, we see that the smartest of them are taking emerging economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America very seriously. This goes well beyond the decades long landslide of China growing into an economic superpower. The main markets of the world in 20-30 years will include India, Nigeria, Pakistan and other emerging economies that today have limited impact, but which will grow into major forces over the next decades. Truly understanding these upcoming markets will require a multi-cultural workforce, and open mind and global thinking.
Positioning through alliances
We are presently supporting top universities from a leading EU country and from an emerging economy to develop a long term R&I joint venture. Both universities stand to gain a lot from their joint initiative, and by no means does the more advanced university act out of philanthropy. The university in the developed country simply realises that it needs to connect deeply with emerging economies in order to survive the next couple of decades. They are trying to maximise the Value they create from Science and Technology – and Bax & Company is supporting them every step of the way.