Biotech and the Chinese plan helps the Bay Area

This just in from the SF Biz Journal:

The need for China to move on from its "Worshop of the world" role to a more "innovation-based" role should benefit the Bay Area's economy, which as we mentioned here seriously needs it.

Why? Thanks to the Bay Area's strong focus on innovative technologies - more particularly biotech - and the ties between the Bay Area and China. Ties that are growing, despite the current economic crisis, and thanks, at least somewhat, to the budding ChinaSF initiative...

Here's in a nutshell why the Chinese plan is good for the Bay Area, and it's simple really :

1) China's new five year plan, aided by the Bailout plan funds (see post on that here) is looking to heavily develop China’s innovation infrastructure and capacity.
2) The Bay Area is well known for its innovation and advanced technologies - Japan missed out on the new forms of communication in the early 1990S, the Silicon Valley did not -.
3) It so happens the Bay Area has a special affinity with China : strong historical and demographic ties (read more on that here), and a ChinaSF initiative, "an office of San Francisco’s Economic Development Department that aids partnerships between San Franciscan and Chinese companies."
The result? Bay Area Biotech heavy industries can and will "help" the Chinese...

To read more on the subject, here's an extract on an SF Biz article on the subject from the 9th of February (the rest is for paying subscribers only) :

"Bay Area biotech takes a role in Chinese plan"

The biotech sector is playing a key role in China’s quest to move from a manufacturing-based economy to an innovation-based economy. And that’s good news for the biotech-heavy Bay Area.

With its large population of Chinese immigrants, decades-old ties to the region and its proximity to Shanghai and Bejing, Bay Area companies, investors and universities are working to position themselves as strategic partners in the new China, one outlined in the country’s latest five-year plan.

“The five-year plan has delineated an emphasis in strengthening China’s innovation infrastructure and capacity. That’s attractive for companies,” said Ginny Fang, director of ChinaSF, an office of San Francisco’s Economic Development Department that aids partnerships between San Franciscan and Chinese companies.

Guo-Liang Yu, president and CEO of Burlingame-based Epitomics Inc. said the Bay Area’s biotech ties to China have accelerated in recent years.

Quoted from the
http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/02/09/focus2.html?jst=pn_pn_lk