International Friction and Cooperation in High-Technology Development and Trade Papers and Proceedings (1997) / Chapter Skim
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National Policies in Support of High-Technology Industry
National Policies in Support of High-Technology Industry
Pages 71-88
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From page 71... ...
We also are very pleased to have a representative of the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Kazuhiko Hombu, who is based here in Washington where he works with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. And, last but not least, we have someone who is well known to many of you, Chris Hill, who is to talk about current American technology policy or perhaps the demise of American technology policy, whichever he thinks most appropriate.
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From page 72... ...
Indeed, Professor Scott's contrast between consumer-oriented and producer-oriented economies suggests that a wide range of institutions beyond the central government play an important role in public efforts to promote technological change. By comparing Germany and France Europe's two largest economies and the world' s third and fourth largest economies I would like to illuminate some of the institutional arrangements that other countries deploy in the service of technological advance.
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From page 73... ...
These include legally restricted hours of opening for retail stores; stringently enforced limits on discounting in the retail trade; and a powerful cultural resistance to the use of credit cards, which is only slowly being eroded. The savings that result from these restrictions on consumer spending tend to be channeled through the well-known German banking system toward industrial development.
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From page 74... ...
In addition, French vocational education is only beginning to recover from decades of neglect; as a result, France is only beginning to build a pool of intermediateskilled technicians and practically oriented engineers needed for technology-intensive production. Finally, France's industry associations, traditionally weak in their relations with the centralized French state, cannot become strong partners for managing competition and technology diffusion overnight.
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From page 75... ...
This process has had several distinct phases. Until 1960, Japanese electronics firms followed successful examples of U.S.
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From page 76... ...
Globalization: Now to touch the second topic, many Japanese manufacturing companies are trying to change their business structure in the following ways. The first challenge is a "new business globalization." Many Japanese manufacturing firms have already shifted their manufacturing and sales centers outside of Japan and now their globalization efforts are approaching the next stage: global sharing of intellectual resources and global cooperation.
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From page 77... ...
To become an effective source of advanced information, the Japanese government will have to increase its R&D investment in academic circles and public research institutes to the same level as that of governments in other advanced countries. When industries, universities, and the government cooperate in R&D, each needs to clearly understand its own mission and responsibility.
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From page 78... ...
I have selected two different areas: information technology and life sciences. There is a big difference between Japan and the United States regarding governmental expenditure in these two areas.
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From page 79... ...
Of course, the Science and Technology Agency and the Ministry of Education of the Japanese government cover the basic technologies and science areas. Japanese industry, of course, covers the goods, market, and commercial technology.
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From page 80... ...
Expenditure: To keep in mind the domain of interest, it is useful to remember that the federal government has recently directly financed approximately $70 billion worth of R&D activity annually. It indirectly finances billions more through tax preferences for industrial R&D and for charitable contributions to institutions of higher education and other nonprofit organizations, through reimbursements on government procurement contracts for portions of contractors' "independent R&D" costs, and through grants-in-aid to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
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From page 81... ...
In other words, technology development has taken its place alongside more traditional concerns of societies such as the development and exploitation of land, natural resources, people, and capital as a key factor in national well-being. To deny a national responsibility for technology policy is to deny the essence of modern society.
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From page 82... ...
In view of the history of the idea of technology and its place in national strategies and policies, I believe that the congressional attacks on programs, such as the Advanced Technology Program, the Technology Reinvestment Program, and Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) are thoughtless at best, probably destructive, and certainly ill-considered.
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From page 83... ...
For example, disagreements over treatment of foreign company participation in U.S. technology support programs precluded passage of the congressional leadership's flagship National Competitiveness Technology Act (S.
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From page 84... ...
Careful studies should be done of experiences over the past six years with experimental programs such as the NIST [National Institute for Standards and Technology] Advanced Technology Program and the multiagency Technology Reinvestment Program so as to extract lessons useful for building more successful and efficient programs in the future.
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From page 85... ...
The system of engineering education in France through their national schools, nonetheless, continues to create a political elite, which does, I would argue, dominate public technology policy in France very, very strongly. The other educational initiatives that you have mentioned are very important, but they have not yet made a real switch in the hierarchical structure of enterprises in manufacturing, though they may very well in the service industries.
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From page 86... ...
As to the degree of competition, whether it is determined by domestic institutions, such as trade associations or world market conditions, this is a very complicated question. I am not sure there is a short answer, but I would argue that the very intricate structure of the trade associations does impose certain types of governance restrictions on markets that German firms can and cannot enter easily.
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From page 87... ...
Next, you talked about the 10 percent of Hitachi's production being located overseas. That is slightly higher than the 8 percent aggregate that is reported for Japanese firms overall, and it is approximately half of the 20 percent of U.S.
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From page 88... ...
First, it is important to realize that we are not talking about R&D policy. You may have been using that as shorthand, but that is simply grossly inadequate to characterize the subject of technology in modern economic development.
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