They're touted as the new tiger economies. Brazil, Russia, India and China - the so-called 'BRIC' countries - are growing so fast many people are predicting they could overtake some of today's richest countries by the middle of the century.
Others remain to be convinced and have raised doubts about whether the BRIC countries have the teeth to challenge established economies. Whatever view you hold, one thing is true. Even though BRICs do face some major challenges to realise their potential, innovation and technology won't be an obstacle to their progress. Far from it.
Let’s look at China for example. Driven by the need for innovation to deliver tangible social improvements, China's spending on R&D has increased by more than twenty per cent each year since 1999. The country has expressed a desire to become an 'innovation-oriented society' and is planning for advances in science and technology that will account for sixty per cent of economic growth.
Meanwhile Indian business are applying the skills that they have built up in outsourcing various business processes to new areas of innovation and research. These are buoyed by flows of people, ideas and cultures as a large proportion of the twenty million Indians spread around the globe are scientists, technologists, engineers and entrepreneurs.
A Datamonitor report commissioned by BT - Building Business with BRICS - found that all of these these nations have shown remarkable agility and speed in adopting new collaborative tools and technologies. In many cases, they have been quicker to adopt the digital world than the US or Europe. For instance, half of all international calls made from India are now made over the internet. While many African nations are adopting internet telephony (VoIP) faster than developed markets.
This rapid uptake of technology is already recognised by some companies in established economies. They are turning to the developing markets and using them as test beds for new innovation. And because, in many cases, there is no legacy infrastructure in these markets, these developing countries have the ability to leapfrog to a digital networked economy far more quickly than established markets. According to the experts, this is the ideal foundation for BRICs to thrive. And it's already paying dividends.
Tracero - UK manufacturers of specialist measurement tools for the oil and gas industry - has teamed up with leading Brazilian energy company Petrobas to lower costs, increase production rates and decreased environmental risks. Elsewhere, Oxford-based environmental consultancy EcoSecurities is working with Chinese firms trading environmental emissions reduction credits. While in India, BT is collaborating with Amadeus - one of the world's largest international processors of travel booking - to support the growing demand for low cost travel in India.
In fact, there are thousands of examples where companies from BRIC and non-BRIC countries are forging new alliances. And while these examples of businesses working together are all different, they all share a familiar thread - that technology can be harnessed to enhance collaboration between companies in established economies and those in the emerging BRIC companies.
"Western executives have the systems in place to work with BRICS," said BT Global Services' Jon Hawkins who commissioned the research. "There is already an effective global network in place that enables collaboration between organisations and countries. If this can be harnessed, successful collaboration between organisations in the West and those in BRICS will be a sign that globalisation has come of age."
It's clear that technology and the ability to innovate is putting developing countries on an equal footing with the developed countries, in terms of their 'ability to do business'. What's more, BT is playing a huge role in helping businesses and governments worldwide use collaborative technologies, helping customers to co-operate to achieve competitive advantage in today's digital networked economy.