DPU Working Paper - No. 110

Author: Kousuke Araki

Publication Date: 2000

Policy Implications of The Concept of Technopole and The Case of Japan's Technopolis Programme For Developing Countries.
In recent years there has been considerable interest in technology-oriented regional development policies in many industrialised countries. The attempt to create the so called ‘technopole’ (Castells and Hall, 1994) is one of these policies. The proliferation of such an effort in so many countries on the stimulation of hightechnology industry through technopole planning appears to be based on the assumption that technological innovation leads to economic growth, and directing the location of high-technology industry is relatively easy because of its ‘footloose’ nature and therefore can be a key industry for the development of hitherto underdeveloped backward regions (Malecki, 1991).

Thus with the hope of replicating the apparent success, numerous attempts have been made to identify the factors governing the formation of classical examples of innovative industrial complexes such as Silicon Valley in the US. However, there has been little agreement so far, as to what are the governing factors behind the success of such innovative regions and to what extent planning intervention can help the formation of innovative industrial districts. 

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