Toward a Sustainable Technopolis - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 174

of modern Islamic banking—notwithstanding that ownership can be exploitative
as well).
Compared to the world of the Prophets, though, ours is more crowded, inter-
dependent, and specialized. The few weeks we spent this year with no credit
market to speak of were not the kind of weeks we would wish on our descendants.
It is necessary and unavoidable that we lend and borrow when it seems wise to risk
the consequences. The consequences may compromise future generations' assets.
I offer, with apologies to Dr. Brundtland, a modification of her principle: Let us
always do our best for the next few generations, while not compromising (too
much) our enjoyment of the present, nor our capacity for taking bold risk.
5 Cases
Additional data about Bangalore and Hsinchu round out the information given
above.
5.1 Bangalore
The historic development of Bangalore's technoeconomy is shown in Table 4
5.2 Hsinchu
The Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, opened in 1980, is administered under
the National Science Council of the Executive Yuan. The park has 300 employees
and is one of twelve science parks in Taiwan.
HSBIP now hosts 432 companies, and 17 more are approved for tenancy. Of
these companies, 376 are domestic and 54 are foreign. Collectively they employ
130,000 people (average age 30), generate 1.2 trillion New Taiwan Dollars in
revenue, and have given rise to 4,400 patents. HSBIP maintains relations with 24
''sister science parks'' in 12 countries.
Only 1.3 % of HSBIP tenant company employees have Ph.D.s. This surprising
fact brings us back to the park's name (science-based industrial park): Though it is
commonly called a science park, it is really about manufacturing.
HSBIP officials attribute the park's success to the interaction of these factors:
• Environment and services
• Incentives and availability of venture capital
• Quality of human resources
• Industry clusters and industry-academic links for R&D.