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IT Takes
a Village
By Michael Alan Hamlin
May 11, 2001
That title is not original, unfortunately. It first
appeared, to my knowledge, as the headline of an article in the
January 12, 2001 issue of Asiaweek. The story below the headline
told the surprisingly high-tech story of Yamada Village in Japan,
a small town with an aging population where residents are snowed
into their homes through most of every winter. The inhabitants have
embraced the Internet because it allows them to communicate with
each other, and the outside during those lonely months. The technology
also assures elderly villagers of regular medical attention in the
comfort of their homes, dramatically reducing time-consuming, costly,
and frequently very difficult trips to a clinic or hospital.
The story is an example of how circumstances often
conspire to bring about unexpected results. Although Internet penetration
is high in Japan and continues to grow dramatically, in part because
of the popularity of NTT DoCoMo's all-the-time wireless Internet
service, New Economy stereotypes don't associate leading edge technology
with quaint mountain villages populated mostly by really old people.
Instead, we think of Singapore One, the island nation's broadband
network, Malaysia's Multi-Media Super Corridor (MMSC), and Pacific
Century Cyberwork's (PCCW) CyberPort.
The problem with these modern stereotypes, of course,
is that they aren't very accurate. Singapore One signed up just
12,000 subscribers in its first year. It had expected 400,000 households
to be connected. Despite the popularity of dial-up access, the practical
benefits of the more expensive broadband technology just aren't
apparent to most Singaporeans. The MMSC is largely uncompleted,
and investment a sliver of what was originally projected. The CyberPort
won't begin operations for another two years, and there are concerns
whether its parent will be much more than a telecom player and real
estate developer before it is completed, rather than the pan-Asia
Internet, technology, and entertainment powerhouse investors originally
expected.
Most of Asia's governments, as elsewhere, agree that
Internet penetration is an indicator of prosperity, educational
attainment, and what I call New Economy aptitude, or the capacity
to continuously embrace technology-driven change and its impact
on work and lifestyle. But what does it take to catalyze consumer
acceptance of the technology?
In Yamada Village, it was the promise of interaction
and access to medical and other services during the long, lonely
winter months. But once the technology became a way of life, it
became a fixture of life all year long. The popularity of DoCoMo's
I-mode provides another glimpse into what stimulates people to embrace
technology: meaningful, relevant interaction anytime and all the
time users want. Aside from always being on, services are practical,
simple, and plentiful.
There's a larger, related question, however, than seducing
consumers to the Internet. And that is seducing investors to net-savvy
economies.
According to the non-profit Technology Information Program (ATIP),
there are around 200 science and technology parks competing for
investment in Asia. Worldwide estimates vary from 600 to 1,000.
About half of the science parks in Asia are in Japan, and local
governments in China run half of the rest. India, despite its growing
reputation as a technology hub ¾ it exported over US$8 billion
in software last year ¾ has just a dozen or so.
What makes a science and technology park? Well, it
takes a village. According to a recent report in Asia-Inc., the
International Association of Science Parks says to qualify as a
science or technology park, a development must exhibit three qualities.
First, it must have operational links ¾ not just proximity
¾ with universities, research centers, and other institutions
of higher education.
Second, the park must be "designed to encourage
the formation and growth of knowledge-based industries or high-value-added
tertiary firms." Finally, the park must have "a steady
management team actively engaged in fostering the transfer of technology
and business to tenant organizations." The report notes that
by this standard, the number of bona fide science and technology
parks in Asia shrinks.
Yet others say still more is required. David Crowe,
chief operating officer of Editor.com and author of the Asia-Inc.
report notes that park developers "are constructing grand projects
in which a new generation of the technical elite can live and work
in relative luxury, in modern homes, with community shopping centers,
advanced technology laboratories, golf courses, and the occasional
Jacuzzi.
The attempt is to make the place, "cool,"
as Paco Sandejas, vice president of H&Q Asia Pacific put it
at the recent Cebu IT Summit, as in "a cool place to live."
Mr. Crowe says, "the business model is all about 'work-play'
combinations. The Singapore Science Park offers tenants a gymnasium,
an aerobics studio, a swimming pool, tennis courts, food courts,
cafés, restaurants, bus shuttles within the park, and shuttles
to Singapore's MRT train stations." And that's not all. Childcare
clinics and medical clinics are also available, as are business
seminars, health programs, and lunchtime entertainment.
The one Philippine park profiled in the report had
few of these attractions. The Philippines' new IT investment zones
in Eastwood City, Fort Bonifacio, and RCBC Plaza, however, potentially
can rival many of Asia's best parks in a number of ways, except
in the area of education. For example, Hong Kong Science Park has
formal ties to six universities in Hong Kong. Bursting-at-the-seams
Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park in Taiwan has links to 12
research facilities and two nearby national universities, and the
Singapore Science Park sits next to the National University of Singapore
and boasts 7,000 engineers and scientists within the park.
To attract high value-added investments, it's imperative
that the Philippines' educational infrastructure improve. Just as
important, academe and the parks must learn to link meaningfully
and effectively to generate the research and the people required
to drive development. The high-tech fallout has probably reached
its peak in the U.S., and if that's the case, the thirst for people
will be greater than ever.
And meanwhile, competition for high value-added technology
investment in Asia has never been greater.
(Mr. Hamlin is managing director of the consultancy
TeamAsia and the author of two books on Asian economies and managing
in Asia. His latest book is The New Asian Corporation: Managing
for the Future in Post-Crisis Asia. His e-mail address is mahamlin@teamasia.com.ph.)
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