Asia & Pacific

The government of Kazakhstan is executing a new economic development policy concentrated on using the proceeds of their oil and gas riches to diversify their economy.

Information on last month's conference by the Centre for Regional Innovation and Competitiveness (CRIC) on "Beyond clusters: current practices & future strategies", held in Ballarat, Australia, in cooperation with TCI, is now available.

The Taiwanese Institute for Information Industry launched last month a private business club, "Connect Taiwan", that shall aim to link Taiwan's entrepreneurs with local and overseas venture capital firms, in an attempt to internationalize Taiwan's high-tech sector.

A memorandum of understanding was signed in Munich on Friday July 15 by researchers from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and Japanese colleagues from Tohoku University in Japan. Their joint objective is to develop MEMS, micro-electromechanical systems, for SMEs in Japan.

Michael Enright, the host of our annual conference in Hong Kong, has recently published a new book on regional development in China together with Edith Scott and Ka-Mun Chang.

Hong Kong has jumped from fourth to second place in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, a leading league table of the world's most competitive economies. The first place spot continues to be held by the United States.

The Indian Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA) signed last month a memorandum of understanding with the Exporters Association of Botswana (EAOB) to offer its expertise in cluster approach for the growth and development of industry and export.

Blacksmiths and iron-mongers (locally known as lohars) from Baghraji, near Jabalpur, India, shall become small-scale industrialists if a cluster proposal of the regional government gets clearance from a national level.

In the recently published World Economic Forum's Global Information Technology Report, Singapore took the top billing out of a list of 104 countries. The report ranks Singapore as the top economy in exploiting global information and communications technology (ICT) developments.

Hefei, capital of Central China's Anhui Province, is to become the new home to China’s first ever “Science City”. The city is actively seeking new technological industries and striving for efficient use of energy and raw materials.