Design Council
As emerging economies like the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) grow and their rates of production increase, the need for design to differentiate will rise as well.
But are emerging economies using design strategically enough, and if they are, does this pose a threat to UK designers? Or does it present opportunities for our design industry?
Facts and figures about the current state of design in emerging economies:
- The economies of the four BRIC countries now account for 35% of the world’s economic growth.
- India has a national design policy which aims to produce 5,000-8,000 designers a year through investment in new design centres. Design is expected to be worth one per cent of India's GDP, an estimated £56million, by 2009.
- China has plans for its creative sector to grow by 20 per cent year on year. The country opened its first specialised design school 23 years ago: now it boasts more than 400 and a vast new design facility has opened at Guangzhou’s Academy of Fine Arts to teach up to 3,000 industrial design students.
- Just behind BRIC come the TVT countries - Thailand, Vietnam and Turkey - which have a combined population of 230million and a collective GDP of £305billion
‘What is impressive – and worrying – about the emerging economies is not where they stand today but how they are positioning themselves for the future’, says Sir George Cox, Design Council Chairman, in the Cox Review of Creativity in Business.
Crucially, says Cox, ‘The UK has a window of opportunity.' While other countries seek to replicate our existing strengths (such as awareness of consumer rights and needs, brand focus), the UK can continue making its creative processes stronger. UK businesses must consider how countries like China, India and Russia have benefited from design in order to understand how the UK's creative economy can withstand competition from these emerging economies and take advantage of the new opportunities offered by the global marketplace.
In more depth 
'Polymaths with deep roots in culture and craft, new skills in design and broad, open minds are needed to tackle the social and economic challenges facing India...'
Read more from Design Council Chief Executive David Kester's
visit to India
For UK designers worried that emerging economies will take all their work, the Cox Review cites Finland as an example of how design and investment in R&D can help a nation’s economy withstand competition and become a worldwide design and manufacturing leader.
We're helping UK businesses and designers to compete in an increasingly global economy.
- Our business programmes are helping companies use design strategically
- Working with the design industry, we're making sure designers have the skills they need for the future
- Working with organisations like UKTI, we're making sure that design is part of wider government support for UK businesses
