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THE LOW DOWN ON HIGH TECH DOWN UNDER, OR THE PLAIN PERSON'S GUIDE TO THE MULTIFUNCTION POLIS
Abstract
This paper examines conditions of Australian acceptance for the multifunction polis (MFP). A specific physical location has taken the place of the earlier network concept. Other characteristics are: the MFP will be an entrepŏt; it will export information, produce and institutional modes; and it must serve as an environmental tariff wall. For Japan the MFP can contribute to technological ‘catch-up’ and serve the dual function of improving Japan's international and cultural image as well as focussing information transfer to Japan. For Australia the MFP can facilitate industrial restructuring by providing an innovating institutional environment for manufacturing innovation and production, with a possible increase in foreign investment and venture capital. This restructuring link is problematic due to external uncertainties. Key issues are urban location, internationalisation, the centrality of high-tech, contracted employment, internal organization, the position in the technological system, and the decision making process.
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NOTES AND REFERENCES
Margaret Throsby, 2BL, 22 September 1989, 0921 hrs., Multifunctional Polis, Croll's Monitoring Australia, Sydney, 1989.
See for instance, the Sydney Morning Herald, Hobart Mercury, Canberra Times, The Australian, 30 September, 1989.
Ian Inkster, ‘Catching up and taking over: structural change, the technopolis concept and Japanese R&D for Australia’, forthcoming, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 1990. The standard document used as a reference to early stage proposals is MITI, A Multifunction Polis Scheme for the 21st Century, Basic Concept, MFP Planning Committee, Tokyo, 30 September 1987.
Inkster, ibid.; Sheridan Tatsuno, The Technopolis Strategy, Prentice-Hall, New York, 1986; A.M. Anderson, Science and Technology in Japan, Longman, Harlow, Essex, 1984; W. H. Davidson, The Amazing Race: winning the technorivalry with Japan, Wiley, New York, 1984.
K. Sato, ‘Did technical progress accelerate in Japan?’ in Shigeto Tsuru (ed.), Growth and Resources Problems Related to Japan, Macmillan, Tokyo, 1979, pp. 158–60, 177–8; Japan Science and Technology Agency (STA), Indicators of Science and Technology, STA, Tokyo, 1977.
Keizai Koho Centre (KKC), Japan 1983, An International Comparison, KKC, Tokyo, 1983, p. 18.
M. Moritani, ‘Japanese technology: potential and pitfalls’, Japan Echo, 13, 1986; N. Makino, ‘High technology in Japan: its present and future’, Nippon Steel Forum, April 1984.
MITI, op. cit., p. 10.
Inkster, op. cit., pp. 25–36. MITI has defined a strong link between R&D facilities and the Japanese technopolii: nine of MITI's 16 national laboratories are located in Tsukuba Science City, north east of Tokyo. The agenda for the proposed 19 to 23 technopolii emphasises the sharing of information within discrete boundaries which are at once institutional and spatial and the development of dynamic interactions between universities, business and local governments.
For the long trend see Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Australian Economic Statistics 1949–50 to 1982–83: Tables, Occasional Paper No. 8A, RBA, January 1984, p. 184.
Peter B. Dixon and Alan A. Powell, Structural Adaptation in an A iling Macroeconomy, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1979, esp. Ch. 1–2.
See the good discussion by K.G Gannicott, Paper I: Research and development incentives, pp. 287–314 in the Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Technological Change in Australia, 4, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1980.
For a most general approach see F.R. Bradbury (ed.), Technology Transfer Practice in International Firms, Riju, Netherlands, 1978; ‘Technological economics: innovation, project management and technology transfer’, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 6, 1981. For classic early claims as to the positive impact of TNCs in Australia see Manufacturing Industries Advisory Council, Overseas Investment in Australia, Sydney, 1960.
Inkster, op.cit., (fn. 3), pp. 37–40. For industrial strategies see Ivo Favotto, Increasing Returns and Reviews of Industry Policy in Australia 1945–88, B. Com. Hons. Thesis, Faculty of Commerce, University of New South Wales, 1988.
Queensland Premier's Department MFP conference, Bond University, 8–10 November 1989.
MFP Joint Steering Committee, 1989, Multifunction Polis, A Concept to Create the Future.