Charting Taiwan's Technological Future: The Impact of Globalization and Regionalization

There is now general agreement among observers of international economic and technology affairs that the world has entered a period characterized by the interplay of two potent and possibly dialectical forces - globalization and regionalization. Globalization, which is clearly manifested in the changing nature of competition in industries ranging from textiles to telecommunications, is being driven by a combination of diverse forces, including the communication and transportation revolutions, the growing trends towards liberalization, privatization and deregulation, and the rapid diffusion of technologies around the world. Multinational companies (MNCs) have become the principal purveyors of globalization as they seek out new markets and search the world for access to critical R D, production and distribution assets irrespective of where they may be found. Regionalization, on the other hand, has primarily been driven by macro-political forces, with governments as the initiating agents, as in die case of the formation of the European Union and the North American Free Trade Association. Where regionalization is driven by explicit and overt government actions and policies it can more often than not be seen as an anathema to globalization; politicallyinduced regionalization in these cases is driven, in large part, by concerns about loss of national competitiveness and a decline in economic welfare.