Secretary Chu: U.S. Losing Ground to China, India

(Photo Credit: Center for Neighborhood Technology)

United States Energy Secretary Steven Chu, speaking at the National Press Club, said yesterday that the United States must act to reverse the decline of its manufacturing competitiveness.

The US is gradually losing ground to India and China in research and high-tech manufacturing, a top Obama Administration official has said, while highlighting the need to collaborate with the two countries in various fields.

“Will we maintain America’s innovation leadership, or are we going to fall behind? And I would say, let’s seize this opportunity and we really can’t afford not to,” US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said at the National Press Club here yesterday.

In less than 15 years, China has moved from 14th place to second place in published research articles, now just behind the United States, he noted.

“Eight of the 10 global companies with the largest R and D budgets in the world are establishing R and D facilities in China or India or both. And 77 per cent they will build in China and India,” Chu said referring to the facts taken from ‘Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited’. 2010.

The full article from the Indian Times can be read here.

– The Editors