Chapter 6: Science & Engineering Indicators 93

Productive Capacity

This indicator evaluates the strength of a nation's current, in-place manufacturing infrastructure as a baseline for assessing its capacity for future growth in high-tech activities. It factors in expert opinion on the availability of skilled labor, numbers of indigenous high-tech companies, and judgments on the management capabilities in the country, combined with published data on current electronics production in each country.

Taiwan's productive capacity scored the highest among the NIEs, although South Korea and Singapore were not far behind. (See figure 6-27.) Hong Kong fell short compared to the other NIEs, with low expert opinions of its availability of skilled labor and on the variable measuring electronics manufacturing.

Malaysia once again stood out among the EAEs--in fact, its score was closer to that of the NIEs than to the group of emerging Asian economies. India's score was also quite high compared to the other countries in this group, supported by its comparatively large electronics manufacturing industry and its tradition of training its students in science and engineering.

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