Sir, Although my Swiss S&T Foundation has been warning of the developing economic might of the East and its social and economic effects on the West for two decades now, western economies are now forewarned that China has now entered the fourth phase of its economic blueprint and the head of their central bank has [...]

Sir, Is the United Kingdom symptomatic of the wider issues and problems that the EU faces in the long-term? For Britain in economic terms is bleeding to death and no-one seems to care. Over the last three decades the UK has lost 23 global businesses with the loss of millions of jobs to overseas predators [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Aerospace industry aims to fly higher on innovation‘: When asked to name the greatest attribute that a world-leading engineer could have, our late chairman – the great aeronautical and design engineer Prof. John Argyris FRS (Royal Medal) FREng (Prince Philip Medal) – pondered for a few seconds, which at the time seemed like [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘‘Smart work’ could be key to green growth‘: I am rather puzzled with the concept of ‘smart work’ being green. I must admit I would like flexible working hours and an office right next to my home. I guess that teleworking, if correctly arranged, would do that, although it is true (as rightly [...]

Sir, The total cost of EU regulation on SMEs is estimated at 123.8 billion euros or 3.5% of EU GDP. It takes each SME on average seven hours a week to comply with this administrative burden. The European Commission’s own figures show that 44% of SMEs consider themselves as operating in an over-regulated environment. Partly [...]

Sir, Not until the EU starts trying not to copy and think ‘out of the box’ will the innovation might of the EU be released. All that we predominantly do in the EU is copy, as the article underscores. That was fine for the Japanese and the Chinese when they were beginning their economic cycles, [...]

Sir, Studies indicate that there is no correlation between corporate research and development spending and profitability. Indeed it can divert money from other investments that a company needs, and that can of course be fatal. Sometimes, however, it prevents companies disappearing which otherwise would not have survived. Specifying the wrong indicators will mean mis-allocation of [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Britain hosts ‘innovation summit’ with EU Nordic member states‘: Despite all the rhetoric from the UK government this notion that they will help companies in the UK develop green technologies is an absolute farce of major proportions. Most of the ‘green’ developments we have seen promoted in the UK have been those proffered [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU spending on R&D slips further behind US‘: Maybe if the private sector did not have to spend so much complying with the constant and growing flow of EU legislation they could spend more on R&D. Charles Marriott

Sir, Regarding ‘SMEs laud Commission’s e-invoicing initiative‘: As the head of a small business in Europe, I welcome the Commission’s proposal to allow tax to be invoiced electronically. This is clearly a positive, yet very small step forward. So small that I would call it a baby step. If the EU really wants to make [...]