Asian Countries Announce Major Technology Investments

As the U.S. Congress is ironing out the details of the stimulus package, the final share of science and technology investments within the bill is not known at this time. However outside of the U.S., other countries have recently announced their own proposals to improve the research and innovation infrastructure of their countries.

In China Premier Wen Jiabao announced last month an acceleration of 600 billion yuan ($88 billion) in spending toward 16 planned major projects in science and technology, designed to accomplish short-term stimulus and long-term economic goals. The projects were outlined two years ago in "National Guidelines for Medium- and Long-term Plans for Science and Technology Development," which specified China's investment strategies from 2006 to 2020. , These 16 projects include the development of large aircraft, advanced integrated circuits, wireless technology, energy extraction, high-end machinery, software systems, novel medicines and water treatment, according to the Wall Street Journal and Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.

In November, China announced a 4 trillion yuan ($580 billion) general stimulus package. The first tranche of 100 billion yuan was allocated toward the end of 2008, and last week Chinese state media announced the government will begin investing a second allocation of 130 billion yuan ($19 billion).

Last week, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) announced its intentions to invest 34.1 trillion won ($24.6 billion) over the next five years to improve high-speed internet to 1 Gbps and wireless broadband to 10 Mbps throughout South Korea. The KCC claims this action will increase broadband speed 10 times over its current speed by 2012, and create 120,000 jobs in the process. The Korean government will provide four percent of the total, with the rest coming from private telecommunication companies. In January, South Korea's Ministry of Knowledge Economy announced its five-year innovation plan, which strives to push total R&D intensity to 5.0 percent of GDP in 2013, from 3.4 percent in 2007.

On a smaller scale, the government of Singapore allocated $48 million last month to support 100 doctoral students at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART). SMART is a research entity created between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Singapore's National Research Foundation (NRF), and its research programs are housed within Singapore's Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), intended to be an "innovation hub" for future development in the country.