By a wide margin, the US maintains its place at the front of the line when it comes to spending on R&D, as well as its perceived leadership in different areas of research, including healthcare, energy generation and aerospace, the 2011 Global R&D Funding Forecast by Battelle Memorial Institute, found. Battelle, based in  Columbus, Ohio, is a charitable trust dedicated to scientific, educational, technology and community endeavors.

Still, this isn't the time to get cocky. A number of other countries have significantly increased their R&D spending and are gaining ground. China, for instance, boosted its R&D outlays by about 10 percent annually over the past few years. It now accounts for 12.9 percent of global R&D spending, having inched ahead of Japan, which is expected to record 12.1 percent of R&D expenditures this year. Europe's share has slipped from 24.1 percent in 2009 to a forecasted 23.2 percent in 2011.

We all know about the BRIC countries--Brazil, Russia, India and China. But now there's talk about a new set of emerging markets with growth potential. They're the so-called CIVETS countries -- Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa-- with diverse economies, fast-growing populations, and prospects for healthy overall growth, according to Knowledge@Wharton .

The countries will grow at an annual rate of 4.5 percent during the next 20 years, according the forecasting group Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). That's slightly below the 4.9 percent average predicted by the EIU for the BRIC nations and far above the rate of 1.8 percent forecast for the G7 nations.

China is slowing making inroads into another major market--debt underwriting.

Caterpillar said its financial services subsidiary raised about $150 million in a yuan (also known as renminbi) denominated medium term note. The issuance was conducted in Hong Kong and bought by institutional investors.

Who says politicians cannot move markets? Yesterday's town hall meeting by President Obama contained some tough language for the Chinese. The President said that the Chinese leaders were not doing enough to let their currency, the RMB, appreciate. In response the value of the RMB surged to its highest level since 1993.

The spot price of the dollar/RMB cross reached a high of 6.6987 while the price for one-year non-deliverable forwards for the RMB reached 6.5818 to the dollar. This was an increase of 50 basis points on the day and suggests that the currency will appreciate by nearly two percent over the next year.

For multinationals keen to take advantage of the strong growth potential in Asia, changes to China’s foreign investment regulations might just make that a little bit easier.

According to a Reuters UK report, the country is in the process of reviewing its foreign investment catalogue—which lists those sectors and industries in which foreign companies or investors may invest.

Global fast food chain McDonald's is known for flipping its burgers in China, where it has 1000 restaurants. Yet last week it offered up something even juicier than a Double Cheeseburger: RMB200 million ($29 million) of three year notes. The deal was the first time a foreign company had issued renminbi-denominated bonds in Hong Kong and commentators are already heralding the move as the start of a new trend.

The so-called Panda bonds--bonds issued in renminbi in China by foreign companies--have been spoken of for while. The Chinese are keen for them to happen as they strengthen Hong Kong as the centre of this kind of issuance, while also allowing for more internationalization of the Chinese currency.

It could turn out to be the strike felt across the world. When employees at Chinese electronics manufacturer Foxconn went on strike earlier this summer, the ramifications were not immediately obvious. Their demands for better pay and conditions were met with a 30 percent hike in salaries.

This has now encouraged workers in many other Chinese companies to follow suit. The result? Western companies are being squeezed as their China costs rise, which they cannot offset with higher prices in their home markets. Some manufacturers are even relocating plants back to the US as a result.

China may be talking the talk of meeting energy reduction targets, but whether they will walk the walk long term remains to be seen.

And the impact of their energy reduction plan--to shut down 2,000 high-energy-use factories in heavy industries across the country--could have a big impact on the companies being targeted. Certainly a failure to comply will have a big effect.

A senior figure in the UK's coalition government yesterday announced plans to force banks to lend to small businesses. Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, said in an interview with The Sunday Times, that he would use a "carrot and stick" approach to make sure banks extended credit to small business. At the moment, he said, banks were "not acting in the national interest."

His proposals will be outlined later Monday in a working paper being released by the UK Treasury. Specifically he is looking to target bonuses and dividends of banks that were not deemed to be lending enough. At the moment, such a system is in place with the partially nationalized banks RBS and Lloyds. The extension of this proposal to other UK banks would be a major escalation of the policy.

China must make much greater concessions if it hopes to join the World Trade Organisation Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and be viewed as a fair market for foreign investment, according to global business and political leaders.

US and global members of the GPA are expected to reject the latest proposal for trade concessions by China for the would-be member to join the group. According to a report in the FT, the proposals do not provide enough support in opening to foreign companies the $500 billion public procurement market in China.