Silicon Valley has rebooted after a five-year slump, creating jobs, attracting growing capital investments and registering higher per capita income while re-inventing itself by moving into areas like clean technology.
SILICON VALLEY: Silicon Valley has rebooted after a five-year slump, creating jobs, attracting growing capital investments and registering higher per capita income while re-inventing itself by moving into areas like clean technology, according to a major survey released here.
The US hub for technology innovation added more than 30,000 jobs over the last year and commanded more than 28 per cent of all the country's venture capital investment, according to the 2007 Silicon Valley Index, an annual economic assessment by Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network, a public-private partnership.
The 60-page report, that was released on Friday at a conference addressed by Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Vice President Al Gore, showed the region is re-inventing itself once again with venture capital moving into promising new areas like renewable energy and clean technology.
"Silicon Valley has entered a new phase in its dynamic evolution," said Russell Hancock, Joint Venture's President and CEO, adding that investments in clean technology had jumped 900 per cent to reach $300 million annually.
The report points out the area is competing and collaborating with tech centres around the world and that globalization is helping to expand the valley's economy, rather than threatening it.
The report also shows Silicon Valley's population is growing and becoming more global in character, with 40 per cent of the workforce born outside the United States, and 48 per cent of the region's population speaking a language other than English in the home.
This means Silicon Valley has supplanted Los Angeles as California's most ethnically diverse region, and is now second nationally, behind Miami.
In a 'special analysis' section, the report argues that Silicon Valley's diverse ethnic composition will be its chief asset in the global marketplace, where new technology regions in Asia, Israel, and Europe are emerging as competitors and collaborators.
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