Seminar on High Technology and the Labour Market: Asian Experiences, New Delhi, March 1988

This seminar was organized by the International Institute for Labour Studies and the Indian Council of Social Science Research. It was the second seminar bringing together an informal network of academics, policy-makers and trade unionists concerned with the relationship between high-technology industrializa- tion, labour markets and general issues of economic and social development. The first seminar was held in Brazil in 1987. The driving force behind the network is Martin Carnoy of Stanford University.

Given its location, it was not surprising that much of the debate was dominated by discussion of the Indian experience, although China also was represented by a strong contingent. Carnoy, together with Manuel Castells, opened proceedings by placing some of the developmental and policy issues in global and theoretical contexts. Aspects of the Indian case were explored by Papola, Mukhopadhyaya, Deshpande, Mathur, Prakash, Tulpule and A.K. Singh, and papers on China were presented by Li, Zhang and Wang. The rest of Asia was represented with papers by Salih and Young (on Malaysia), Fong (on Malaysia), Pang (on the east Asian NICs), Park (on South Korea) and Henderson (on Hong Kong). Edquist (Sweden) gave a general paper on the labour market consequences of the diffusion of high tech, and verbal interventions were made by Wantanabe (Japan), Alagh (India), Treydte (Germany) and Rodgers (IILS, Geneva) amongst others.

Time and again discussion returned to three related issues: the role and likely impact of high-tech industrialization for India and China, autarkic versus more open paths to development, and the significance of state policy. Many of the Indian participants doubted whether high-tech should or could play a major role in the country’s development, and a number of them expressed reservations about relaxing India’s generally autarkic development strategy. Chinese partici- pants, as one might have expected, were more convinced about the positive aspects of both high-tech and world economy connections. Comparisons with the experience of the east Asian ‘gang of four’ highlighted the crucial significance of the state in high-tech industrialization and economic growth.

A fuller report on the seminar together with abstracts of the papers can be obtained from: Gerry Rodgers, Labour Market Programme, International

Conference report 491

Institute for Labour Studies, Case Postale 6, CH-Geneve 22, Switzerland. In due course a selection of the papers will be published as a special issue of Labour and Society.

University of Hong Kong Jeffrey Henderson