Stimulating new industries from emerging technologies: challenges for the public sector

Stimulating new industries from emerging technologies is central to successful high-tech based economic growth, employment, competition and sustainability in modern market economies. The Taiwanese experiences in developing new technology-based industries (e.g. integrated circuits, personal computers, notebooks, scanners, and TFT LCDs) illustrate some of the ways policy makers can shape the development of emerging technologies into new industries. These ways of actions are manifold, but at least policy attentions to three key mechanisms are critical. These mechanisms encourage partnership in the commercialization process, foster entrepreneurship and venture initiatives in the innovation system, and sustain commercialization and the creation of new firms. The study of Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan on biochips and nanotechnology further shows how the policy makers can build a statutory body to effectively address the functions of three mechanisms as a whole.