Can Hong Kong and Taiwan become the
next Hollywood-Silicon Valley Dream Team?

Speaking at the 10th Taiwan-Hong Kong Joint Conference on Economic and Trade Affairs held in Taipei, Dr Yu said like Silicon Valley, Taiwan would provide the technologies to the world while Hong Kong, like Hollywood, would provide the content in this ever burgeoning industry.

As Hong Kong is already the entertainment capital of Asia, and Taiwan the high-tech manufacturing hub, the opportunities that would open up if the two could work in tandem are huge, he said.

Dr Yu pointed out that the time is now ripe for such a partnership because many of these new technologies and industries that are emerging are still in their infancy.

"If you look at B-to-B networks, no one really knows how to use these things. Property companies are putting gigabyte networks into homes, but what are they connected to? Companies know how to send a movie into your home, but what if it's interactive?"

These are questions that remain unanswered. There is no denying that film production people understand how their technology works, as do software companies, but if they are converging, interacting with each other, no one knows how this will work, he said.

Hong Kong, given its advanced infrastructure, will most likely be among the first areas in the world to be used as a testing ground for these new technologies. But it can also become the world leader in developing these new broadband applications.

Taiwan, on the other hand, which manufactures many of the world's PCs and electronics, has the capability to feed demand for these new products.

But it must move quickly and bring to market its ideas.

Microsoft's new X-box and Playstation II are classic examples of how Taiwan could dominate the market, or miss the boat. The X-box is basically a PC. It is powered by a PentiumIII 600 MHz CPU, has 64MB DDR DRAM, sound card, and 6X DVD drive, a 8 GB harddrive, and a few other bits of hardware.

However, a couple of years ago Acer CEO Stan Hsih talked about developing an X-Computer, which he envisioned to be an applications specific computer, but essentially still a PC. Unfortunately that was as far as it went.

"Why is Microsoft, a software company, doing stuff like this?" Dr Yu asked. "This is something that Taiwan should be doing. You know all these PCs are manufactured in Taiwan, so why couldn't Taiwan pull something like this off?"

The X-box is just one example of how Taiwan and Hong Kong could develop and market new products if they put their heads together. Products in homes of the future, offices and intimate computing devices are just some of the areas that are still wide open, he said.

"So here, Hong Kong could define the new products, services and lifestyles for these new markets, and Taiwan would produce them," he said.

Digital technologies are also opening new opportunities in education.

"In China less than 10 percent of people get to go to university, compared to 50-60 percent in the U.S. and Europe, so obviously the opportunities are huge," he said.

Dr Yu is adamant that the relationship would be a win-win situation for all. Hong Kong could provide Taiwan companies with a market for new products -- content and content creation expertise, financing and a staging area for the China market, while Taiwan will feed these markets with its products, he said.