Chapter 6: Science & Engineering Indicators 93

New High-Tech Competitors

The previous sections identified several nations that have made tremendous technological leaps forward over the past decade. Whether these countries will play even more important roles in technology development in the near future remains to be seen, but several Asian economies appear to be well-positioned for just such roles. Their large and continuing investments in science and engineering education and R& D resources and infrastructure provide a foundation on which to build their position in many high-tech areas. (Click here for footnote 62.)

This section attempts to assess the future national competitiveness in high-tech industries of eight Asian economies: the four newly industrialized economies--Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan--and four countries viewed as emerging Asian economies (eaes)--China, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. This competitiveness is gauged through scores in four leading indicator areas--national commitment, socioeconomic infrastructure, technological infrastructure, and productive capacity. (Click here for footnote 63.) (See figure 6-27.) These indicators were designed to identify those countries with the potential of becoming more important exporters of high-technology products over the next 15 years. A more thorough discussion of the indicators and projection model used in this analysis is provided in "Leading Indicators of National Competitiveness." (Click here for footnote 64.)

Footnote 61:

This section presents early results of research sponsored by the National Science Foundation aimed at developing new indicators of national technological competitiveness. These indicators have undergone extensive validity and reliability testing that supports their use as a tool for both policy analysis and research. See Roessner, Porter, and Xu (1992). The present discussion focuses on several Asian economies whose rapid growth or potential to make important contributions in s&t areas has attracted the attention of the industrialized world. Data assessing the high-tech potential of countries in other important regions are being collected in order to provide more comprehensive assessments of technological competitiveness in future Science & Engineering Indicators reports.

Footnote 62:

See chapter 2, "Asian Students in U.S. Universities," and srs (1993).

Footnote 63:

These four indicators were used by OTA (1992) to examine Mexico's technological capacity.

Footnote 64:

The scores discussed in this section are extracted from Roessner (1992). This report calculated standard scores based on data for 10 economies: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. "The survey instrument consisted of 15 closed-ended questions with responses on a five-point scale. The instrument was sent to a sample of country experts in April 1990. Experts were selected because of their knowledge of the technology policies and socioeconomic conditions in [the] countries studied. Occasional high variance in responses to individual survey items were atrributable to rater inconsistencies rather than to inherent uncertainty about a nation's status. Generally, the survey items discriminated well among countries, and the median standard deviation of responses to individual questions within countries was less than one on a five-point scale."

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