ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 17, 1996 TAG: 9612170038
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
IN ATTEMPTING to expand the region's export economy, businesses and civic leaders would do well to recognize a couple of things:
* Services, as well as goods, can be sold overseas.
* Higher education drives export development.
In his 1991 book "The Work of Nations," Robert Reich observed that the distinction between "goods" and "services" is disappearing, nowhere more so than in international trade.
The distinction is becoming meaningless, he wrote, "because so much of the value provided by the successful enterprise - in fact, the only value that cannot easily be replicated worldwide - entails services: [1] the specialized research, engineering and design services necessary to solve problems; [2] the specialized sales, marketing and consulting services necessary to identify problems; and [3] the specialized strategic, financial and management services for brokering the first two."
Even companies selling a traditional product, if globally competitive, are selling a kind of service: their knowledge of how better to make the product.
This sort of knowledge exists throughout the region, waiting to be tapped and smartly marketed overseas. But, as the demand for specialized knowledge grows, institutions of higher education must play a special role.
They must, above all, produce graduates who can identify problems and solve problems, or get together the people who can.
Also important, however, are universities' creation of new knowledge, and their accessibility for partnering with export-minded businesses. With research, sponsorship and spin-offs, a university can spawn specialized services that are valued globally and purchased abroad.
In our region, Virginia Tech in particular fills this role.
Virginia Tech Library Services, for instance, sells automated library-information systems in more than 20 countries. In recent months, Tech officials have been negotiating to provide math and science curriculum for a "virtual university" in Malaysia - using distance-learning technology as a substitute for building new campuses. Meantime, a variety of public agencies and private businesses buy Tech research on everything from genetic engineering and smart materials to pest control, reforestation and pharmaceutical development.
Tech already is exporting services - and it could do more. If Western Virginia is to come close to filling its exporting potential, the university must be a leading player.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB