International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development - Volume 2, Issue 2, 2003

Innovation plays a crucial role in the evolution of high-tech clusters which are invoked as a strategy for sustainable industrialisation and economic growth. Over the last five decades, the Silicon Valley in California has emerged as the most successful high-tech cluster in the world. Not surprisingly, policymakers, regional planners and real-estate developers elsewhere in the world have sought to emulate its success. Malaysia’s answer to the Silicon Valley is the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), which was launched in 1995 with the aim to create a knowledge-based economy through technological leapfrogging. Is the MSC a mere ‘top-down’ planning exercise that is out of sync with the needs of the Malaysian economy, or does it represent a strategic way forward for Malaysia to catch up on technologically advanced countries? This paper examines the rationale, implementation and progress of the MSC, the issues arising from the MSC experience and the implications for other developing countries.

There is a pressing demand for institutional reform in Indian agricultural research and policy. This paper argues that a conceptual and analytical distinction between institutions and organisations is essential to determine the purpose and consistency of reforms. Institutional change involves transformation of the rules/norms that govern agricultural policy, research and extension organisations. This distinction is necessary for agricultural research to engage in institutional learning and identify the critical constraints on the process of agricultural innovation and development. Examples from the history of agricultural research and extension in India reveal a legacy of institutional problems in the national agricultural research and extension organisations. These organisations have been unable to involve stakeholder participation, promote partnerships and generate institutional learning capabilities. Agricultural policy must enable an introspection of the institutions of agricultural research. This is important to enhance the capability of agricultural innovation systems to build effective partnerships, learn from and respond to complex technological and social contexts, and evolve as a dynamic overarching framework for sustainable development.

The paper proposes a way to adapt the standard cost-benefit analysis (CBA) technique to make it more suitable for analysing the feasibility of projects in new sub-sectors, when project success hinges on simultaneous investments in complementary activities to be undertaken by different private investors. New elements in the method include an estimation of expected profitability for a prospective new sub-sector as a whole, and an assessment of the sub-sector’s technological capacity environment. The method could be used as a tool for project planners to gain insight into the likely feasibility of stimulating initiatives aimed at promoting viable private-sector investment in new economic areas. It should also help them to direct their resources to those key areas within new sub-sectors where central intervention and central coordination is most needed to overcome critical constraints on innovation by private investors. The method is illustrated with an example of a small-scale sisal processing project in Tanzania.

In what way does economic development become sustainable in developing countries? The Algerian economy is being forced to improve its economic development. In whichever way it attempts to reach this goal, it must do so by using its natural environmental resources and by strengthening its relationships with Northern Mediterranean countries. This research illustrates how the economic development of both the EU and of Algeria influences this relationship.

Pieter Winsemius and Ulrich Guntram, A Thousand Shades of Green: Sustainable Strategies for Competitive Advantage London: Earthscan, 2002, xviii + 251 pp., ISBN 1-85383-846-2