Hsinchu, Taiwan

Professor Chong Ju Choi, director of the MBA program at the Judge Institute of Management at Cambridge University and an authority on globalization, points to Taiwan as a prime example of the centres of excellence in emerging economies. The Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, established in 1981, is the centre for Taiwan's high-tech electronics and information industries. The Park is noted for its innovative research and development projects. It was created with funding from an enlightened Taiwanese government (from 1980 to 1995 it allocated $483 million to it). "Today," says Professor Choi, "Hsinchu is worth one-third of Silicon Valley in terms of revenues and profits. Talk to people in Silicon Valley and you realize that the American high-tech companies have been outsourcing on a large scale for 20 years."

So successful has Hsinchu been that the Taiwanese government is now developing a second science and technology centre. Elsewhere, others are coming up fast, including the so-called Silicon Fen science and technology park based around Cambridge University, where Professor Choi is now based.