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No
Waiting for Huang
Virginia's
new Secretary of Technology has lost little time
putting his imprint on Virginia's high-tech
policy. Eugene Huang's priorities include life
sciences, nanotechnology, broadband and IT.
It
hasn’t taken
long for new Secretary of Technology Eugene J.
Huang to lay down a marker for the future. In what
could have been a dry, routine report on
technology strategy and development in Virginia
before the Joint Commission on Technology and
Science (JCOTS) December 1, Secretary Huang chose,
instead, to reinvigorate the administration’s
strategic roadmap for technology
and growing technology businesses. He also laid
out an ambitious agenda to extend Virginia’s
leadership in the application of technology to the
business of government and in emerging industries
“that will define global competition.”
The
vision and the commitment exhibited in these areas
have been hallmarks of the administration of Gov.
Mark R. Warner thus far, even with the major
handicap of having few new budget resources to
facilitate change. Despite early disagreements and
continuous hand-wringing about the Virginia
Information Technologies Agency in 2003, for
example, VITA is steadily building its way toward
the reforms and efficiencies promised for state
procurement and IT operations. And there are
clarified, focused priorities and operations
evident in the statewide work of the Center for
Innovative Technology that boosts tech company
startups and helps attract multi-university
research dollars.
But
the new, energetic voice of Secretary Huang
already is serving as a second-stage booster
charge. Nano-
technology,
the revolution in the life sciences, the urgent
needs of homeland security and the explosion of
broadband are not new to him; they always have
been a part of his formal education and
professional years. They do not require
generational changes for him; he is living the
transformations. And Eugene Huang discusses
breakthroughs and initiatives in those areas as
givens that the Commonwealth must both pursue
vigorously and adjust to continually.
In
the matter-of-fact manner one would expect from
one equally comfortable with economics, tech
startups, federal telecom policy and his older
colleagues in the Cabinet, Secretary Huang laid
out for JCOTS the background on the core science,
assessed the opportunities, described programs
underway and projected the benefits going forward.
He suggested a substantial, but targeted state
investment in nanotechnology to complement and
accelerate university R&D and private
investments in that area. He urged a new
commitment to the governor’s SmartBio
initiative, which along with private investment
partners would boost research facilities, train
specialized workers and support commercialization
of results in Virginia. And he spent a good amount
of time working through the questions of why
broadband everywhere in the Commonwealth ASAP is
more important than how it gets deployed or
exactly who deploys it.
On
state government IT operations through VITA, the
technology secretary cited 15 “Quick Win”
strategies identified by VITA that could produce
enough savings in FY2005 to offset the
administrative fee state agencies now pay for VITA
services. Eleven other cost-saving initiatives and
two cost-avoidance initiatives are projected to
save $16 million in FY2004, $26 million in FY2005
and $27 million in FY2006.
In
the end, the Secretary’s report outlined
potential investment opportunities for Virginia
government in technology ranging in total from
$500,000 to $40.5 million. Noting the high degree
of leveraging possible by using these state funds
to attract federal government and private sector
investments, the report urged JCOTS to consider
the return on investment--hundreds of millions of
dollars in new salaries and wages, companies and
market opportunities.
For
its part, JCOTS is one of the places in the
Virginia General Assembly that regularly does
consider the challenges inherent in
technology-driven change and the huge payoffs that
are possible from making those changes faster than
other states or regions. Veteran members of JCOTS,
such as Chairman Joe May, R-Leesburg, Del. Ken
Plum, D-Reston, Del. Sam Nixon, R-Chesterfield,
and Sen. Janet Howell, D-Reston, always have been
among those General Assembly members who best
reflect the rapidly changing economy and
fast-growing economic center in Northern Virginia.
But
newer members, such as Delegates Ken Alexander,
D-Norfolk, John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, and Thomas
Rust,
R-Herndon, and Senators Ken Stolle,
R-Virginia
Beach,
and John Watkins, R-Midlothian, have been
attracted to commission membership by the
opportunity to extend their own understanding of
what is happening in and to their regional
economies because of technology. They sense that
helping all parts of Virginia
transform themselves with technology faster--skills
for emerging opportunities, laws to encourage
sharing information safely, new financing
mechanisms to allocate risk--will work to the
long-term benefits of all.
Let’s
hope JCOTS members start by helping their
colleagues in the House of Delegates and Virginia
Senate translate the initiatives outlined by
Secretary Huang into reality. Past discussions of
wider investments have floundered in recent years
in the maelstroms of budget politics. But New
Year’s resolution number one could be a simple
one: Listen more often to Secretary Eugene Huang
on why and how Virginia
can transform itself more quickly. Then we all
will have a new phrase to fall back on: The third
Secretary of Technology’s the charm.
--
December 13, 2004
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