China has announced a $585 billion economic stimulus plan to help it counteract the worldwide financial crisis. Innovating through crisis is critical, and precisely what China intends to do with this spending. The country is already feeling an impact on its export as the reality of the economic recession hits more countries, and they want to stop before it gets worse.
China’s plan is to invest the nearly $600 billion economic stimulus plan over the next two years on social welfare, such as low income housing and rural infrastructure to fend off financial crisis. Post-Sichuan earthquake reconstruction is a major part of that investment, as is public transit, health care, education and the environment.
It’s interesting to think how this economic stimulus plan will look. To narrow in on just one of the areas they’ve promised to innovate, imagine the possibilities of what a budget like that could do for earthquake reconstruction and prevention.
The slideshow below highlights a great selection of earthquake innovations, from post-disaster shelters to pop cultural happenings post-Sichuan earthquake this spring.