It's easy to talk about the Japanese (or Chinese, or US) information technology (IT) market as though it were a discrete entity, but it is not. Domestic markets don't - and can't - exist in isolation. The modern infrastructure of low-cost global transport and telecommunications has given rise to a vast, intertwined world IT market, with no country self-sufficient.

Consider, for example, that most business programs used in Japan are localized versions of software created by US developers. Or that the major Japanese and US computer vendors rely on Taiwanese and Southeast Asian manufacturers for the bulk of their system components. Changes in the health of one nation's business environment, or its import/export policies, thus impact the economies, businesses, and consumers of other countries.

Currently, the major "hot spot" of information technology buildup is in Asia. Increasingly, Asian-Pacific nations are striving to develop IT industries in their quest to climb the ladder of economic success. And their individual and collective success in this endeavor will have a profound and growing impact on the global IT market.

It is with this trend, and the new challenges for worldwide business growth which it creates, as background that the US National Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) - the official private observer body of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) - has organized the Asia-Pacific Information Technology Summit. To be held in San Francisco from November 19 through 21, this summit will serve as a forum for initiating new dialogs between Pacific Rim business leaders and government officials about new ways to advance economic growth through IT, and about the policies and strategies most conducive to achieving that growth. The summit sessions will focus particular attention on the incentives, opportunities, and costs/impediments for IT industry development.

The importance of this summit is underscored by the status of the participants - from the business sector, CEOs Andrew Grove (Intel), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Rupert Murdoch (News Corporation), and Stan Shih (The Acer Group), to name just a few; and from the government sector, Philippine President Fidel Ramos, US President Bill Clinton (tentative), and numerous senior government officials including ministers from Indonesia, Korea, China, Australia, and other APEC nations.

Computing Japan is proud to join AsiaWeek, Communications Week International, Red Herring, PC World China, and China Computerworld as a media partner of the upcoming Asia-Pacific IT Summit. I'll be there (along with publisher Terrie Lloyd) to meet industry leaders, learn about regional growth potentials and opportunities, and gather information for future articles. So, if you're able to attend this seminal event, please stop by and introduce yourself as a Computing Japan reader. I'd love to chat.

For more information about the Asia-Pacific IT Summit, see the ad on page 5 of this issue, or access http://www.pecc.org.


WM. Auckerman


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