Hawaii HiTech Venture Capital$$$

["Mike Staver" <staverm001@hawaii.rr.com>]

		FYI, Team VCommerce - excerpts on state initiatives for
HiTech Startups - 

		STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS
		GOVERNOR BENJAMIN J. CAYETANO
		Before the Joint Session of
		the Twentieth Hawaii State Legislature
		1/24/00
		For the first time ever, viewers on the World Wide Web are
watching this address at their desktops in Hawaii and throughout the world.
For getting us on-line, we thank PixelWorld, the University of Hawaii's
Department of Information and Computer Science, and the High Technology
Development Corporation. To all of our on-line viewers, aloha and thanks for
logging on.
		...
		ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION AND EDUCATION
		... 
		Today, I'm very happy to announce our plans for bringing
Hawaii's educational institutions -- and the people they serve -- into step
with the competitive challenges of the new century. These plans call for a
number of strategic investments in new programs at the Department of
Education and the University of Hawaii
		...
		At the UH, there are exciting things happening. The
University has recruited academic leaders of bold vision who are nationally
renowned in two of our high priority areas: Healthcare and Technology. 
		...
		Guy Kawasaki, local grown Iolani graduate and one of the
pioneers at Apple Computer, is now a nationally known hi-tech consultant and
evangelist. Guy once told me if Hawaii wanted to develop a high tech
industry, it must have a world-class engineering school. 
		In 1998, the internet economy generated over $300 billion in
revenue and 1.2 million jobs. By comparison, it took the automobile industry
100 years to scale such heights. For this reason, Hawaii and its workforce
must be competitive in global e-commerce. 
		Under the direction of Dr. David McClain, the UH College of
Business Administration is developing the Asia Pacific Center for E-Commerce
and Entrepreneurship. I am excited by this project and I propose to give $1
million to this program. This will give students the skills they need to
take advantage of business opportunities in the explosive Internet industry.
I ask your support for his program. 
		... 
		We want to build a more flexible, more responsive education
system in Hawaii, one that will work in close cooperation with both public
and private sectors. 
		How will we pay for these projects?
		As a start, I propose to use funds from the $27 million the
state realized from its Digital Island investment. The success of Digital
Island was a grand-slam home run for the State. Digital Island was started
at the State's Manoa Innovation Center by a fourth-generation 'local boy'
named Ron Higgins. Today, Digital Island is a global corporation valued at
more than $3 billion. 
		To encourage more Digital Islands, we must attract more
venture capital to Hawaii. And we can't expect to do this without first
investing in Hawaii ourselves. 
		Hawaii has many assets attractive to technology companies,
quality of life, a fine college of engineering, and a world-class
communications infrastructure. But, venture capital is not one of our
assets. 
		The availability of venture capital to finance
entrepreneurial start-up companies is vital to building our technology
industry. Hawaii needs more venture capital. 
		Therefore, I propose establishing a new $50 million state
venture capital fund called the Hawaii Technology Fund. This fund will be
comprised of proceeds from the State's Digital Island holdings, together
with an investment from the Employees' Retirement System. 
		I believe these funds can be leveraged with Small Business
Administration Programs up to $90 million. And we will encourage our labor
unions and private and charitable trusts to invest into the fund. 
		I ask you to support our legislation to establish this Fund.

				
	...
		Full Speech at:
		http://starbulletin.com/2000/01/24/news/story1a.html
<http://starbulletin.com/2000/01/24/news/story1a.html> 
vr,
Staver

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