Asia & Pacific

Business Review Weekly (BRW), Australia's leading business magazine, has a feature article: "Industry Clusters - the future of business". The article first explains what clusters are and then focuses on how to identify and develop them.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, special guest Dr. Peter Brain gave a lucid and insightful overview of the importance of tacit knowledge for the success of economies at the regional level.

Australia's 2002 "Creativity Index" provides a new tool to evaluate a city's potential for economic and cluster development.

Much attention continues to be focused on Malaysia after the currency crisis, as it continues to rebuild its economy. Malaysia has a comprehensive strategy in place that may help ease the concerns over future investment and continue high-tech economic growth.

Last November, J.E. Austin Associates and the Kenan Institute Asia (KIAsia) began working as part of the "Southeast Asia Competitiveness Iniciative" (SEACI) in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. SEACI, sponsored by U.S. AID, is supporting these countries with cluster development as part of helping them recover from the 1997 Asian Crisis.

As India's trade policies are liberalised, its textile industry faces the issue of upgrading its clusters and preparing itself for global competition.

Twenty industry groupings have received approximately $US 15,000 each to engage facilitators who will work to share expertise, identify common goals, and develop shared supplier and marketing information.

A major study under the direction of Playford City Council (South Australia) is shedding light on the nature, drivers and location of food clusters.

South Korea is making a concerted government effort to combine biotech and IT industry clusters.

As the world of electronics moves towards advanced IT products, investment and development of southern China's electronic industry boomed.