Three-fourths of British medium-sized organisations are not aware of their regional development agency, or RDA. Who cares, asks M Institute co-founder Jyoti Banerjee? Well, the RDAs should, and the government should, and - surprisingly - so should mid-sized companies.
We think of the Chinese as growing unbelievably fast. India is no slouch either. Nor is Ireland. But looking at growth stats for a country as a whole is misleading. It's not countries that grow fast - it is individual regions that grow.
All over the world, we see certain regions performing so spectacularly that the entire country seems to be glowing green with growth. But other regions in the same country lag behind. China is a case in point. In China's coastal regions, such as Dalian, Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang, per capita income is around $5000 per year, a figure already surpassed by Guangzhou. But in the hinterland, incomes fall away to between $2000 and $1000, and lower. If we treat regions as countries, then nine of the top fifteen Asian countries are actually Chinese regions.
