A pioneering Japanese-English simultaneous interpreter will entertain and enlighten you with the tales of some delightful events where humor has successfully transcended cultural barriers, or some embarrassing ones when the speakers and/or interpreters fell flat on their face. A product of the U.S. occupation of Japan and American tax-payers money later, Muramatsu has served countless international conferences and encounters by any other name, including the first nine G-7 Summit meetings of heads of state and government. (The first, in 1975, at Rambouillet, was G-6; guess who wasn't invited to the dinner.) Meticulously avoiding divulging any state secret or materials for tabloids, he has written essays, books, and given lectures on fascinating episodes that make us laugh and then think the tricks in breaking linguistic and cultural barriers. Born in Tokyo in 1930; worked first as a clerk-typist and then as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Tokyo 1946 through 1955; trained as one of the first eight Japanese simultaneous interpreters by the U.S. State Department, serving some thirty Japanese productivity study teams that toured the U.S. 1956-1960. Tried a new career as an economic researcher with the U.S.-Japan Economic Council in Washington, DC predecessor to the Japan Economic Institute of America). Went back to professional interpreting by returning to Japan in 1965, relinquishing his green card, and established Simul International, Inc., the first professional organization of, by and for interpreters in Japan. After 33 years as its president, then chairman, and also president of the Simul Academy, semi-retired into an advisory, albeit full-time, status in 1998. His clients include Pres. Reagan, Pres. Kennedy, Sen. Kennedy, Professors Milton Friedman, Paul Samuelson, John Kenneth Galbraith, Peter Drucker,Japanese prime ministers from Tanaka to Nakasone, India's Prime Minister Rajif Gandhi, Britain's Prince Charles, Jeffrey Archer, Arthur C. Clarke, Ralph Nader, Betty Friedan, and Yasser Arafat.

When Taiwan's government launched Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park Project in 1979, the objectives were three fold: to revitalize the country's economic growth, to establish its indigenous high-tech base, and to slow down the (then) serious brain drain problem. After extensive consultations, study tours, and careful evaluation, a strategy was adopted to emulate Silicon Valley. The key ingredients of the strategy were to establish favorable investment and living environments for high tech entrepreneurs, to lure back some expatriate brain power, and to train more science and engineering graduates. The initial plan involved a 10-year, $500 million government fund to develop a nearly 600 hectare science park in Hsinchu, where two prestigious universities and a government funded research institution already were located. The Taiwanese government established a Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park Administration in 1979 to execute this plan. What has happened during the past 20 years? The current status of the Hsinchu Park will be presented to substantiate the original plan and strategy. Dr. Irving T. Ho currently serves as Chairman of the Board of EiC Corp. His distinguished career includes serving as the first Director General of the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, President and CEO of International Integrated System, Inc., Vice Chairman of Taiwan's National Science Council, and senior manager and award winning researcher at IBM's East Fishkill Laboratory. Holder of 34 US patents, Dr. Ho received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Pieter P. Bottelier recently completed a 28-year tenure at the World Bank. He served in various senior managerial and advisory capacities for programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America. His most recent positions were, until December l998, Senior Advisor to the Vice President, East Asia and Pacific Region, and Chief of the World Bank's Resident Mission in Beijing (1993-97). He now teaches at the School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University, and is associated with the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington DC. He is the author of many articles on China. He studied economics and banking at the University of Amsterdam and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The role of location is gaining attention as a contributor to firm and industry competitiveness. A number of researchers have linked innovation and productivity to the geographic clustering of firms. While a variety of industry clusters in the United States and abroad have been studied, seldom have they been considered within the context of global competition. Global competition complicates the location decision. Drawing on extensive evidence from the hard disk drive industry, including information on the complete population of firms since the industry's inception, this presentation offers a framework for understanding the dynamics of industry location in international competition. David McKendrick is Research Director of the Information Storage Industry Center at the University of California, San Diego. His current research focuses on the role of location in competitive advantage, the effects of geographic dispersion on innovation and learning in multinational corporations, and the evolution of international competition. Prior to joining UCSD, he taught in the business schools at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas at Dallas. He received his Ph.D. in business from the University of California, Berkeley.

There are several technology parks in India funded by both the state and the private sector. They have been widely criticized for offering either a poor habitat for technology development or for being too expensive. Mr. Vaghul heads India's largest development bank, ICICI. ICICI has newly promoted Knowledge Park in Hyderabad to uniquely focus on business R & D. Mr. Vaghul will explain the rationale for and development of Knowledge Park in the context of India's technology development. Narayanan Vaghul, a distinguished financier and currently a visiting professor at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, is chairman of ICICI Limited. Mr. Vaghul has had a long, distinguished career as a banker. After qualifying as a B.Com. and Chartered Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers, he started his career in 1957 with the State Bank of India. In 1974 he left SBI (as Chief Officer, personnel) to join the National Institute of Bank Management where he soon rose to the Chief Executive position of Director. Thereafter, he worked with two of the largest Indian commercial banks, Central Bank of India as Executive Director (1978-1981) and Bank of India as Chairman & Managing Director (1981-1984). From 1985 to date Mr. Vaghul has been Chairman of ICICI Limited. Mr. Vaghul's pioneering vision and stellar contribution to Indian industry was acknowledged when Business India, a leading Indian business magazine, selected him as Businessman of the Year (1992).

The fact that software companies can be started with little more than a few programmers and their PCs has generated great interest in countries around the world looking for ways to get into the high-tech boom as part of their economic development strategy. Avron Barr and Shirley Tessler have been studying the Korean software industry in the context of their ongoing research on the worldwide software industry, looking for strategies that might help Korea develop her competitive strengths. They have looked at all aspects of the industry: software education, financial institutions and new business creation, habitat for startup companies, the domestic market, and global niche strategies. A summary of their findings and some possible recommendations will be discussed. Since 1994, Avron Barr and Shirley Tessler have been conducting SCIP's study of the worldwide software industry with Professor William F. Miller. They are also the principals of Aldo Ventures, Inc., a strategy consulting firm for software organizations. Avron studied Computer Science at Stanford, edited the four-volume Handbook of Artificial Intelligence, co-founded a Silicon Valley software start-up in 1981, and served as Marketing Director for a software publisher. Shirley also studied Computer Science at Stanford, and has an MBA from Wharton. She spent 16 years in corporate finance and M&A before joining Aldo Ventures in 1991. Together they have consulted with dozens of software companies and IT shops on the commercial application of advanced software technology and on the software industry.

Foreign-born engineers are a significant and fast growing presence in Silicon Valley. This talk will examine how first generation Chinese and Indian immigrants--who represent one-third of the engineering workforce in the region--have integrated into the local economy while simultaneously building long-distance linkages to regions in Asia. AnnaLee Saxenian is a Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley and an internationally recognized expert on regional economic development and the information technology sector. Her current research examines the contributions of skilled immigrants to Silicon Valley and their growing ties to regions in Asia. Her recent publications include Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128. She has written extensively about innovation and regional development, urbanization, and the organization of labor markets in the San Francisco Bay Area. Saxenian is the Gordon Cain Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research for the 1999-2000 academic year. She holds a Doctorate in Political Science from MIT, a Master's degree in Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley, and a BA in Economics from Williams College in Massachusetts.

The Vietnam IT Forum 2001 will present an overview of Vietnam's infomation technology industry and its potential for U.S. participation. The conference showcases the emergence of Vietnam, particularly the technology sector and fetures the opportunities and challenges presented by these developments. The conference will examine the Bilateral trade Agreement, along with opportunities in softwre development, multimedia, telecommunications, networking, Internet/e-business, outsourcing, and foreign direct investment and financing. To indicate your interest in attending, please contact Q. Huy D. Do, Attorney-at-Law, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP. Tel: 415-954-0343, Fax: 415-391-2493, Email: qdo@ssd.com ***** THIS EVENT IS BY INVITATION ONLY. *****

Youth labor markets in most OECD countries were in disarray by the end of the 1990s. Japan was no exception. Some observers have claimed that Japan's highly institutionalized school-work system, involving close linkages between high schools and employers, has efficiently matched young people to jobs and has helped keep youth unemployment rates low. How is this changing, in the face of Japan's recession as well as structural changes in the labor market? My research examines the role of the school-work system and the pressures the system currently faces. Mary C. Brinton is Professor of Sociology at Cornell University, where she moved in 1998 after teaching at the University of Chicago for 13 years. Her principal interests are in social and economic change in contemporary Japan, the comparative study of labor markets, gender inequality, and the analysis of educational systems. Recent publications include Women and the Economic Miracle: Gender and Work in Postwar Japan (University of California Press, 1993), "Married Women's Labor in Rapidly Industrializing Economies: Examples from East Asia" (with Yean-Ju Lee and William Parish), American Journal of Sociology 93, 1 (1995), and The New Institutionalism in Sociology (edited with Victor Nee; Russell Sage Foundation, 1998). Her current work focuses on how institutions intervene in the Japanese youth labor market.

Inside Burma, the armed forces have established a chokehold on political power unrivalled in the world. The latest incarnation of junta rule emerged in 1988 following the bloody repression of a nationwide pro-democracy movement. Yet despite international revulsion, today's generals have barely been touched by its effects: the suspension of international economic assistance; the imposition of an arms embargo; and bans on new investment in Burma by Western firms. Over four decades of military rule, there have been rumors of in-fighting among officers, and of mutinies and desertions by foot soldiers. Many have concluded from such reports that the regime must inevitably fall. So far, however, such thoughts have been wishful. While elsewhere in Southeast Asia authoritarian regimes have crumbled, in Burma the junta has endured. How have Burma's generals managed to sustain their dominance for so long? Why hasn't the country's democratic opposition been able to wrest power from this regime? And why have international sanctions and prodding so utterly failed to break the stalemate in Rangoon? Mary Callahan is Assistant Professor at the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies. She received her PhD in Government at Cornell University in 1996. Among her many writings are chapters civil-military relations in Burma scheduled to appear in Soldier and State in Asia (Stanford University Press, 2000) and Burma: Strong State/Weak Regime (Crawford House, 2000). Fluent in Burmese, Prof. Callahan also teaches, lectures widely, and serves as a consultant to the United Nations on political conditions in Burma.