Trade body calls for action on erosion of U.S. leadership
By Mike Clendenin, EE Times
February 17, 2005 (9:47 AM EST)
URL: http://eet.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=60401543

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Fearing the erosion of the United States' dominance in technology innovation, a leading trade group is calling for more investment in basic research, a loosening of immigration policy for skilled foreign workers and "dramatic improvements" in the educational system, among other things, to ensure that the country retains its leadership.

"The United States still leads in nearly every way one can measure, but that does not change the fact that the foundation on which this lead was built is eroding. Our leadership in technology and innovation has benefited from an infrastructure created by 50 years of continual investment, education, and research. We are no longer maintaining this infrastructure," said the authors of a report issued by the American Electronics Association on Wednesday (Feb. 16).

The report describes the US as the "proverbial frog in the pot of water," asserting that other countries are aggressively increasing investments in technology and turning up the heat on the US as they become more competitive.

"We analyze a number of competitiveness factors within these pages that, when taken in isolation as they so often are, would not necessarily constitute a crisis. But the interrelationship — the cumulative effect of these trends — makes the more compelling argument that the status quo is unsustainable, and that any reasonable person will see the need to act," the authors said.

The report points out that India and China, in particular, are quickly becoming competitive rivals to the US. Both countries produce significantly more graduate engineers annually than the US, at 82,107 and 219,563, respectively, according to the latest figures from the US National Science Foundation.

"Japan with less than half of the population of the United States, graduates almost twice as many engineers. South Korea — with one sixth the population and one twentieth the GDP — graduates nearly the same number of engineers as the United States. Some U.S. executives argue that Chinese engineers, in some cases, are not of the same caliber as American or European educated workers. But as China expands and increases technical education, the gap is closing, and closing fast," the report noted.

Although the authors say they don't expect an immediate call to action, several suggestions were laid out as a roadmap for continued leadership. In addition to supporting changes in education, immigration and investment policy, the AeA wants US policymakers and industry to:

promote technology diffusion, particularly in broadband and cellular penetration;

improve the business climate in the US, with special attention paid to reforming the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (which places greater responsibility on CEOs and CFOs to ensure accuracy of financial statements) and to addressing the rising health insurance costs faced by small businesses;

host a Sputnik 2005 summit to address some of the key issues identified in the AeA report and to brainstorm solutions.

The report could be downloaded for free the AeA website at www.aeanet.org when this story was first posted.