Brian You have raised a pertinent question. This is my take: There has been heavy investment in the creation of Export Processing Zones (EPZ) in Kenya, but the Government and the private sector should now consider developing Technology Parks, which will serve as centres for innovation and growth of the technology industry in Kenya. Future Technology Parks in Kenya must establish collaboration with other technological centres around the world, the same way that Taiwan did with Silicon Valley, resulting in the huge growth of technology industry in Taiwan. Currently, Taiwanese patents now rank among the highest in the US market. The challenges facing Kenya's development as a technological hub today are no different from those that countries like India and Thailand faced 20 years ago. These countries recognised the role of innovation as a key driver of competitiveness in business, investment and new venture creation in their economies. There has to be a resolve by the Kenya Government to create systems that will nurture and encourage technological innovation and investment and push the country towards a knowledge-based economy. The Ministry of Science and Technology must place more emphasis on the management and shaping of innovation and R&D in Kenya. The impressive achievements of the high-tech sector in Asian countries are primarily as a result of national policies that have encouraged inward investment in technology and innovation. Kenya needs to develop a National System of Innovation. This can be achieved through increased linkages between the Government, business sector, the research community and academic institutions in pursuit of innovative ways of increasing Kenya's competitive advantage to make the country a dynamic and exciting world-class hub for technology investment and R& D. Peres Were Managing Director CASCADE GLOBAL -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+pwere=cascadegl.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+pwere=cascadegl.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of brian Sent: 21 February 2008 11:33 To: pwere@cascadegl.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: [kictanet] India Losing it's Attraction as Offshore R & D option? This should be v. interesting for us as we gear up for the "offshoring" onslaught..... Question is: What do we need to do to be ready to pitch for the kind of R&D investments that India has benefited from? - good bandwidth? (imminent) - fairly priced labour force (done) - R&D skills (errmmhh - anyone?) - conducive investment policy (somewhat) - stable political environment (oh dear...) anything else? Brian ps. for Alex ;-) http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080220/technology/india_economy_technology_re search_labour ---------------------------- Tue Feb 19, 10:45 PM BANGALORE, India (AFP) - India used to be seen as the perfect offshore research and development hub for global firms seeking to tap its low-cost and supposedly vast engineering talent pool to devise products for world markets. ADVERTISEMENT Companies including Microsoft, IBM, Intel, AMD, Google, Motorola, Yahoo!, Cisco and Siemens have opened R and D centres in India, drawn by payroll costs that were once a quarter of those in the US and Europe. But the cost advantage is fading and engineers trained in basic research are harder to find, reducing India's appeal, says Zinnov, a consultancy that advises overseas firms on R and D issues. "Some companies witnessed a 20 percent rise last year in the cost of running their R and D operations in India," Zinnov chief executive Pari Natarajan said in an interview. "If this trend continues, the cost advantage of doing R and D in India compared to the US will go away," he said, predicting a shakeout in the R and D offshoring market. India is home to 594 R and D facilities set up by overseas firms that invested a combined 5.83 billion dollars, according to Zinnov. Rising costs and a shortage of skilled workers have also hurt other industries -- from software to retailing -- in an economy that has expanded at an annual average of 8.6 percent over the past four years. But the R and D offshoring market has received scant attention. "Costs are going up all over, and we are also facing a shortage of shop floor workers," said Anjun Roy, economist at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. "There is a need to improve skill sets in a lot of areas." Like software makers, R and D centres whose expenses are incurred mainly in rupees were hurt by a more than 12 percent rise last year in the value of the Indian unit against the dollar. Wages jumped about 15 percent as companies fought to hire and retain hard-to-find engineers skilled in research. India turns out more than half a million engineers every year, but institutions do not train them in basic research, limiting the available talent pool to no more than 100,000 people, said Natarajan. The shortage may set back the ambitious expansion plans announced by companies such as networking giant Cisco, which said in October that it plans to triple its headcount in India to 10,000 in three years. "It's going to be very difficult for companies which have very aggressive hiring targets," Natarajan said. "It's almost impossible to hire unless you compromise on the quality of talent." Cisco, which plans to use India to develop products for customers in emerging markets, has opened 170 academies across the country and is training 8,600 students to overcome the talent crunch, human resources executive Leo Scrivener said. "We are aware that a large pool of technical specialists and business solutions experts can't be readily hired from the market," Scrivener told AFP. Cisco has benefited from its R and D facility in India that has generated 110 US patents, with another 400 pending with the US Patents and Trademark Office. Hundreds of patents have been filed by other research facilities based in the country. Half the work on an Intel wonder chip, a fingernail-sized device unveiled last year that offers supercomputer performance, was done by its India research centre. Despite the problems facing R and D, Zinnov predicts that investment in existing facilities by large global companies capable of riding out rising costs, and with the infrastructure to train fresh graduates, will drive India as an offshore R and D destination. That will pump up the R and D market by an annual average of 23 percent until 2012, even as per-employee cost in India increases by a yearly 13.3 percent. Smaller facilities may have to shut shop or sell out while investment in new R and D centres will likely dry up as part of a looming consolidation, said Natarajan. _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: pwere@cascadegl.com Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/pwere%40cascadegl.com