"There's a global economic race between countries and across continents," said Jim Hurd, director of the NanoScience Exchange, a nanotechnology think tank in San Francisco. "At the same time, it's a global village of collaboration. The winners will be those who can collaborate and synergize successfully, quickly and powerfully and with great longevity."

Nanotechnology deals with tools at the level of atoms and molecules, on the scale of nanometers, or billionths of a meter. It promises a second Industrial Revolution, yielding smaller, faster supercomputers and scores of medical breakthroughs, among other things.

Perhaps the backbone of nanotechnology is the manufacture of carbon nanotubes, microscopic structures with 100 times the strength of steel, but only one-sixth the weight. Carbon nanotube manufacturers are well established in Asia, with Mitsui and Showa Denko in Japan, Guangzhou Yorkpoint and Sun Nanotech in China and Iljin in Korea.

The economic powerhouses of Asia - China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore - all are pursuing major nanotechnology initiatives, with China establishing 40 nanotechnology centers, noted Hironori Nakanishi, chief U.S. representative to Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.

Japan currently is the main competitor with the United States in nanotechnology investing, Nakanishi noted. Japan spent $750 million in 2003 compared to U.S. nano spending of $770 million. The main share of Japan's nanotechnology research and development funding - 73 percent - comes from th e Ministry of Education, while the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry accounts for another 21 percent.

"The focus is mainly on nanomaterials. It's not so diversified, doesn't look as much at bio-integrated areas, interdisciplinary areas," Nakanishi told attendees at a recent nanotechnology business conference in New York.

In terms of private nano investment, 60 Japanese firms are spending a combined $200 million in research and development this year, up 20 percent from 2003, Nakanishi said. The larger companies want collaboration and "are reliable but conservative," he added.

When approaching Japanese companies, Nakanishi said it is important to reach the upper echelons as soon as possible, "as it takes a while to get to executive committees" otherwise.

In terms of venture capital for nanotechnology in Japan, Nakanishi said it was emerging, with Mitsui investing $809 million over the next four years and Jap an's Critical Technology Fund contributing $34 million.

Taiwan represents another major player in nanotechnology, with investments of $667 million committed through 2008.

Frank Yang, director of business development for Industrial Science & Technology Network, a nano firm in Springfield, Va., said Taiwan expects to have 800 firms involved in nanotechnology in some way and $8.82 billion in products by 2006 - growing to 1,500 firms and $29.4 billion by 2012. He said Taiwan is strong in electronics, storage, displays and semiconductors.

"One thing a lot of people should know about Taiwan - and this applies also to China - is you have to be really careful about intellectual property and who you're dealing with," Yang said. "Trust drives a lot of relationships, and lack of trust can ruin a lot of these relationships. You have to be really careful with every step you take, put thought into implications.

"IP is a big issue, and you want to protect it in a big way, and structure deals so both side benefit, neither side coming off with more than they should," he added.

Korea offers a potential $2.1 billion domestic market for nanotechnology, explained Taehee Woo, consul of commercial affairs at the Korean consulate general in New York. Korea had one of the first companies to commercialize nanotechnology successfully. Its electronics giant, Samsung, produced flash memory chips in 2002 with 90 nanometer features.

Woo said Korea was investing $200 million in a project called the Next Generation Core Development Program.

"The government made it clear a few years ago that traditional industries like textile and steel cannot be the main force of our economy," Woo said. "Nanotechnology was recommended by the science community to be the most promising technology."

Although Korea is strong in semiconductors, electronics, nanomaterials, nanocomposites and nanotubes, Woo said the country has a long way to go in bionano, environmental nanotech and processing technologies. He said Korea is looking to cooperate with other countries, with its Agency for Technology and Standards signing a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology "regarding nanobiofusion technology."

Australia offers nanotechnology resources that are relatively near in distance and time zones to the Asian nano powers, as well as many other benefits, such as a familiar, comfortable working environment for westerners, said Robert Hunt, senior investment commissioner of North America for Invest Australia.

"It's a rapidly growing economy virtually unaffected by the Asian economic crisis and by the dot-com crash," Hunt said, "and it has a multidisciplinary research and development infrastructure based upon many, many years of excellent, world-class physics, chemistry and biology, with a strong, very well-integrated public healthcare network."

More than 30 Australian nanotechnology-based companies have formed in the past few years and the number of Australian nanotechnology start-ups increased by 50 percent last year - albeit from a small base. That is stronger growth than in the United States (38 percent), Canada (33 percent) and the United Kingdom (25 percent). Australian state government and private entities provide roughly $70 million annually for nanotechnology research and commercialization.

"The greatest strengths are in materials and bionanotech and medical and therapeutic applications of nanotech," Hunt told UPI. "There's a very strong cultural focus on solving problems."

Of note in terms of international collaboration is the partnership between the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on a project to develop "wearable muscles." Austra lian firm cap-XX, an Intel Capital portfolio company, is using nanotechnology to manufacture supercapacitors, which can store energy like batteries and discharge high amounts of current like capacitors.

Australian R&D company Starpharma is the largest shareholder in Dendritic NanoTechnologies, a joint venture located in Mount Pleasant, Mich., and a partner with the U.S. Army's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. The group is developing branching "dendritic" molecules to serve as biological and chemical weapon sensors for use in every part of a soldier's uniform and gear.

Starpharma also is developing an anti-HIV microbicide "which could have the most impact in human life, to prevent the HIV virus from bonding with human cells and finding a home. The amount of value it can have in saving lives in Africa and other places is almost incalculable," Hunt said.

A free trade agreement signed between the United States and Australia May 18 also will eliminate virtually all tariffs on manufacturing goods and enable more collaboration.

"In the longer term, it will be designed to lead to more economic integration between the U.S. and Australia," Hunt said. "All these factors will lead to a much higher comfort level and greater facilitation for investment."

The experts all underscored how vital face-to-face interactions were to success in business in Asia and Australia, as opposed to phone calls or e-mail. Yang said ISTN's chief executive officer spends six to eight weeks a year traveling to meet in person with contacts in Asia.

"There is no substitute for being face-to-face with people you want to collaborate with and face-to-face with people you didn't even know existed," Hunt said.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2004 by United Press International. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by United Press International. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of by United Press International.

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