Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 19, 1994 TAG: 9411150058
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It already has one.
Not just industries that use high-tech tools to produce traditional goods and services, but clean, well-paying, at-the-edge industries that develop and make high tech itself.
Yet the Roanoke region seldom sees itself in a high-tech light, and for a reason. Actually, three of them.
First, high tech here is still a bit player in the economic drama. Some 650 people are employed at firms in the Corporate Research Center at Virginia Tech, for example, compared to more than 34,000 scientists, technicians and others at North Carolina's Research Triangle Park.
Second, groups of high-tech firms have arisen here, if not exactly by accident, then at least on the quiet. Their development has resulted less from a concerted regional effort than from the general livability here, spin-offs from a few companies such as ITT and G.E., and the presence of Tech, with its engineering specialties.
Third, high tech remains widely misunderstood. Many high-tech jobs, for example, are routine and low-paying. Also, as high tech is applied to all enterprises, boundaries between services and manufacturing are blurring.
The three points are related. Though the Roanoke region can't pattern itself as the son of the North Carolina Triangle, it needs more high-tech enterprises. To get them depends in part on the region's willingness to view itself with new eyes, to recognize its own potential as a host to high tech. Which in turn requires a broader understanding of economic reality.
Sometimes presented as a way to make staying here a viable option for young Southwest Virginians, attracting good jobs is even more a necessity if economic stagnation and decline are to be forestalled. Expanding regional high-tech employment is an appealing and necessary way to counter job losses in older industries, some of which occur as technology increases productivity.
Yet, to grow such jobs, we should look less to recruitment than to nurturing what we have, particularly in three areas: communities of interest, quality of life, and rising skill levels.
Growing, competitive industries have always tended to develop in tightly knit clusters, and this is especially true of high tech. Regional economic-development strategies, as a result, need to focus on expanding bases already here, in such fields as wireless communications, fiber optics and bio-technology. Notice the Tech connection with each.
Many of the ingredients for building a greater high-tech presence are little different from those for any other economic-development effort: sites, shell buildings, roads, shared incubator facilities for start-ups, the old-fashioned utilities of water and sewer, and the newer-fashioned utilities of air-travel access and telecommunications. Increasing access to capital is key.
Other ingredients, while not unique to high tech, are more central to it. While the Roanoke region doesn't have three major research universities, as neighbor the North Carolina Research Triangle Park, it does have Tech - which needs to play its role more aggressively - as well as other, smaller institutions. While the mountains of Southwest Virginia limit the availability of suitable sites, they also contribute to the quality-of-life magnet for high-tech employers and highly paid workers.
Quality of life is more than just pretty scenery. It's also things like low crime rates, museums, a vibrant arts community, parks. And good schools.
Schools are crucial to nurturing the most important ingredient for high-tech development: skill levels. The high-paying jobs that everyone wants flow less from technology than from the smarts of those who think up better designs, add quality and find creative ways to solve problems. There's no alternative but to greatly improve education in our region. Fortunately, solid building blocks are here to work with.
The Roanoke-New River region has the prerequisites for high-tech growth; what's done with them is what will tell the tale.
by CNB