As for software development, i agree with your assessment. India has companies such as Infosys which already sell banking software around the region. I suppose what gave Infosys a head start is that it first sold its software to domestic banks which they enhanced to sell to the general market.

Another opportunity we can harness is that there a lot of ‘old’ software being used by Companies in the First World which are no longer being actively enhanced (for example retail software being used by Walmart). Our local entrepreneurs can offer to buy the rights, use the revenue from software maintenance as launch pads to develop newer software products. There is a lot of tacit knowledge locked up into these legacy software that can be transplanted into the next generation. That way you don’t have to start from scratch and relearn the same thing all over again.

Wow. Great book find. Must put that in my must-haves from Amazon. I’m scheming to put up my own software startup someday, once our current services-oriented venture stabilizes.

My concern right now re “oligarchs” is how to convince them to wean away from, or at least diversify into, industry. While I trust their business acumen, I have a feeling that there are some untapped/unfound industrial markets out there that they should be able to exploit but are too lazy too look for and/or it’s not lucrative enough for them. Ayala does have its own IT segment, however, as well as PLDT.

As for software development, my current lament is that too many local companies are into outsourcing, e.g., making customized software for specific clients, rather than product development, e.g., making standardized software that can be sold to much more clients. I do know of a few ISVs (independent software vendor) that create market-specific, generalized software solutions (one of them is a good friend of mine). If that segment is relentlessly developed eventually we can come up with our own equivalents of Baidu, Facebook, or Twitter, or whatever widely popular web app/service and/or software there is.

For my part, i believe that a shift by our Oligarchs away from allocating their capital in land, real estate, trade, financial services towards industry (as in actually making stuff) is needed. [BTW, i support making software as well.] Let the small farmers prosper so that we can build domestic demand that can reinforce the virtuous circle.

I’ll go with blackshama’s suggestion, which has also been what I have been saying: there has to be a way to either a) find, nurture and develop entrepreneurs who are interested in funding sci/tech R&D and/or b) teach sci/tech people entrepreneurship and marketing to help them sell their ideas to investors, VCs, or customers themselves.

I guess we can closely pattern it to a Silicon Valley/Bangalore model wherein there’s a venue to nurture tech startups.

Yeah, that MAC robot must be mass produced, I remember that our best bomb diposal cop failed to stop a bomb,so to prevent those things(death of a cop(legendary or not))from happening, that Mac is a must.