High Tech Sailing Towards Asia

Finally, after the long night of winter, the light of spring is joyful.  It is the chance to see things you can't usually see, to watch nature in transition, which is less pleasant to do when a freezing wind blows or a summer heat wave swelters.  I like Portland’s spring very much.  It is a pleasure to see colorful blossoming trees and smell the flowers everywhere—everything is in a growth mode except the job market.  Unfortunately, job growth is still slow.  The off-shoring of high-tech jobs from the United States to overseas locations is currently contributing to unprecedented levels of unemployment among American high-tech workers and engineers.  IEEE says outsourcing is a serious, long-term threat to US technology leadership.

According to the Economic Policy Institute’s analysis, U.S. jobs have gone overseas: 1.9 million since 1994. Forrester Research, a firm that tracks technology, predicts that 3.3 million high-tech jobs will head overseas by 2015.   Production is getting more global for many high-tech companies, and many of the high-tech and manufacturing companies are sailing to countries where wages are lower.  India, China, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Russia and former Soviet bloc countries are hot spots for these companies.  High-tech companies are moving  not only their manufacturing facilities but are also opening new R&D centers in these countries. For example, Intel has launched a new R&D center in Korea.  Alcatel signed a contract with Taiwan authorities to officially inaugurate the Alcatel ICT Applications R&D Center in Taiwan with government funding.  Agilent Technologies announced the establishment of a system-on-a-chip (SOC) design center in Gurgaon, India, near New Delhi.  The center, part of an existing facility that employs 1,000 Agilent workers, provides ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) and system design services to customers of Agilent's ASIC products. In this issue we covered  a lot of  news about moving  high-tech R&D center's to Asia. I think it is a growing trend for many high-tech companies. 

The spring wind continues to blow and the PICMET team will also be sailing soon to Seoul, South Korea, for the PICMET ’04 Symposium!

Until we meet again.

 Halime Inceler Sarihan,
 Editor-in-Chief

To contact the editor, send an e-mail to halimei@etm.pdx.edu