Day 2 - Tuesday 21 March - Edith Cowan University, Joondalup Campus Video Conferences Kansai Science City - Japan Subject: Government Relations and Investment Session commenced at 5.30 pm IN ATTENDANCE Dusan Mills (Chairman) Members of the Steering Committee Video Conference with officers of Kansai Science City Theme: Review possible models for International, Australian, State and Local Government involvement and investment in the IDEA Project at St Andrews, Western Australia. Defining mutual opportunities Scenario: The IDEA Project will establish proactive alliances with Japanese-based Universities and enterprises. Question 1: Does Kansai Science City (KSC) have financial support from the Japanese Government? Mr Okubo: As I said, in 1978 the then President of the University introduced a vision and formed a committee and the project started from there. Fortunately the National Government was interested in the project and the National Land Agency investigated the possibility of this corporation. Three years after the start of the voluntary local project team, it was promoted to the liberal national party. In 1987 the KSC Construction Act was promulgated and this gave the impetus and incentive for further development of the project. We have been very lucky to be incorporated by various levels of the government from the start. This goes back to the - about KSC promotion. That law has got its first clause which sets out the purpose of the project. Its purpose is of course the cultural and learning and research, not only on the national level but also on the international level. This will lead to the vision of the economy and the same law guarantees the support in three forms. One is the capital expenditure – capital fund and the second one is local bonds. The third one is tax incentives. KSC has been developed in a very, very extensive area which covers 3 districts and it is a really extensive area. Each of the three governors made a proposal for the construction and ultimately the Prime Minister of the country approved that proposal. This way it was envisaged by the national government and also, subsequently, the local government. It is not a project which has been developed by one single entity but really by a conglomerate of entities, the national government and three local governments. I have one more advantage that we have enjoyed. The government set a very high priority for the infrastructure development of our project. For example, they established a major national research and information facility like the advanced research institute. These major projects were established in a project area so that it would attract companies which are interested in the project. Question 2: Does KSC provide facilitation services to major business enterprises? Mr Okubo: This project also is characteristic of involving 11 government departments and its agencies, and the National Land agency is the coordinator of these 11 government offices and agencies. Under these, we have also the municipal. governments and the private developers and housing corporations of various levels. Question 3: Does KSC provide facilities for international companies? Mr Okubo: I think this is a very important point for our development and we do have, of course, certain participants in this respect. We have established the advanced science research institute and this institute is getting a lot of interest for attracting major industries to our project in fields like information technology and new industries, not only on a national level but also on an international level. One more feature of our project is very close university linkage. Question 4: What is KSC’s relationship with local government? Mr Okubo: This project is founded by three particular factors - Support of the infrastructure for development is occurring at this level. The lower levels, some cities and some towns again at this level is occurring within the cities and towns. But these activities are not occurring safely. They will be incorporated into one of the co-ops by KSC. I would like to emphasise there is a very close liaison and association between the different levels of government and KSC. Establishing a framework for strategic cooperation Scenario: KSC and the IDEA Project agree to strategic cooperation. Question 1: How does KSC normally facilitate the creation of strategic alliances? Mr Okubo: I want to comment that at an official, international level we have been involved with an association in France, a member of the association there and also in South Korea we have been associated with a large section or organisation, not particularly active but very steady relationship. Mr Kanai: I agree that this is a very, very important aspect to explore for your project, the strategic cooperation. As far as KSC is concerned, we are now going through the second stage after 10 years. We are trying to promote strategic cooperation at different levels. As far as the international level, we are trying to have an exchange of information and would like them to have a look at KSC activities so that they would give us good views. This is actively promoted among members. We are trying to develop our project involving both government sectors. To achieve this, as previously stated, our activities in the area of strategic cooperation are not particularly active but we are making progress. Mr Okubo: One more point, as far as international people. We have established an international institute advancing construction and we are trying to explore the human frontier. In order to achieve this, we are inviting international scholars to study in Japan for one or two months so that they can work together with us to explore the strategic cooperation. Dusan Mills: Have you prepared a list of specific areas which you are wishing to establish a strategic alliance? Mr Fujii: Mr Kanai’s comment was that he did not think very much about this, but he understands that KSC is trying to explore activities by holding various symposiums so that we can invite research workers to contribute - maybe the field of information technology. These research institutes have been conducting these activities in the direction of development to strategic cooperation and they have been involved in various activities with their international counterparts. Question 2: Which specific opportunities should become the basis of further discussion? Formulating structural and organisational requirements Scenario: The IDEA Project wishes to establish a formal organisational structure to pursue opportunities. Question 1: How does KSC fund its operations? Mr Fujii: As I said, our project is based upon the KSC promotion set out in Clause 8 – the provision of capital. Clause 9 – provision of additional capital through local government incentives. As far as infrastructure development is concerned, it is nationally funded by the law. We do not think our future strategic activities would create a financial problem as we have been well supported by the government. Mr Kanai: Another big advantage that we enjoy is the provision of human resources through the business organisation and a lot of new industries are heavily involved in this. As far as human management and structure is concerned, we are well supported by local industry. Question 2: When KSC does joint ventures in Japan, what is the favoured structure? Mr Kanai: KSC as a whole is not really involved deeply in the strategic cooperation activities but we have got different aspects of our development. For example, one area is involved in housing and environmental development and also the human control etc. through the different themes attached to the project. Theme by theme we are trying to establish the necessary cooperation and also getting information from the world. Identifying key interaction processes Scenario: Should KSC and IDEA Project enter collaboration then other stakeholders will need to participate. Question 1: Is the Japanese Government involved in KSC’s activities? Mr Fujii: KSC has been in existence for 13 years now. If we consider 10 years to be one stage, then we are going through the second stage of the plan. Since we started working on the second stage plan, it has been 2 years already. We will finalise the vision by 2005. As far as a visionary side is concerned, we are investigating the establishment of 4 further cities. One is a city which is designed to create a new kind of technology. The second one is a new city designed to create new industries. The third one is a city which can be proud of its advanced research institute and the fourth one is a pilot model city. So in order to achieve these four types of cities in the future, with the academics and industry experts and local government, we are all working together towards these future visionary cities. Question 2: Is an alliance between KSC and the IDEA Project able to utilise Japanese Government or Australian Government connections? Mr Fujii: As far as this is concerned, there has been a lot of involvement by the national government. This is really a Kansai project that has been occurring in a specific area in Japan. Even that there was no connection between government and industry, there is no specific example to give a possible government to government. The best way in which we can introduce our capabilities and how we can gain some understanding or your requirements so that we can participate and collaborate on your project. Mr Okubo: I think this is the first relevant point for discussion today. I think we must establish a good solid basis for future cooperation on this particular point. To give you an example, in 1985 we had an international conference in our city and we invited a lot of foreign experts. Some came from different countries and contributed to this conference. I think we should rally as many useful, international people as we can so that we can make sure that we are working towards a common goal and its existence of the goal and also we must examine realistic merits and different merits of these programmes and once we have established a common understanding of the ultimate goal and ultimate direction, then we will be ready, so that we can get their cooperation for our proposal. As I said before, the law already guarantees that any contribution of KSC in the direction of international cooperation is funded by this organisation. If the proposal is well based, then we can properly develop into the official partnership. Dusan Mills: Having established a specific basis for collaboration that would then enable KSC to seek resources under the legislation, from our point of view this would be that we would research - Is that a correct interpretation? Mr Okubo: I quite agree what you said. In order to make our objectives clear, is very important. I think that we have common objectives. For example, you people are focusing on the development of advanced technology in order to create industry new jobs. The second point is we must develop a sustainable city in the future. Thirdly, at the moment KCC has a population of 45,000, so that our policies, our activities have been based on jobs. But I think there has been a world tendency for more specific participation in the planning and I believe you have established some sort of - Lastly, we would like to get involved with these activities so that we can work together to achieve our objectives. We share these common objectives. Dusan Mills: If we were to crystallize some simple first steps in the commencement of our communication and cooperation. If we were to provide a paper to you giving you our view of those most important elements which you just discussed with us, would that be a useful first step, together with some suggestions as to how we might take it further? Mr Okubo: A good idea. Dusan Mills: Do you have some questions that you would like to ask of our project? Mr Okubo: In Japan, the organisation has reached its extreme point and now we have a tendency for people to return to the cities. The large-scale organisation does not seem to be a trend. It seems to be that the IDEA Project was going in that direction. Am I right? Dusan Mills: I agree that the limits of suburbanisation have been reached in many cities around the world and the concern that the government and the people involved in the IDEA Project is that as suburbanisation increases in Perth and we continue building to establish communities, the sustainability of these outer limit suburbs is a huge problem. The concept behind the IDEA Project is to have a sustainable future b y having very high levels as self-sufficiency and employment. The levels of self-sufficiency should be based on technology and capabilities which we, as Western Australians, have developed over many decades. Mr Okubo: I agree with what you said. I have the basic philosophy summarised as "self sufficiency". This should apply to energy resources. You have abundant solar energy supplies. Your community should supply solar energy. Waste disposal – we should really work out the best method and recycle. Also as far as the food is concerned, three categories of community. The other one is you mentioned government involvement in the development of your project. Could you give your thoughts on the economic aspect of your project and how to secure a human research network to develop your project. Dusan Mills: Basically our projects – biotechnology and resources for example are related to markets and also related to what we understand very well. For example, in high technology, one area which Western Australia is very advanced in is the application of technology in health and particularly the health and well being of older people. We believe that many people, many older people, do not seek to retire and just simply fade away. That in modern society, older people want to keep their health and want to participate to the end of their lives. A lot of technology is related to health. So from a world market point of view, we think this has a huge market and that we have skills which are very exportable. Mr Okubo: Our project has been making us economically and socially viable. We are thinking on a larger scale and we call it "human" rather than regional interest. It is idealistic, at the same time realistic. Your project is a very visionary project. I really hope that you develop a very fine concept. Please let me have a good look at your final proposal. Dusan Mills: Thank you for your very kind comments and encouragement. We agree that cities should be about people. We thank you once again for the very generous time which you gave to us today. We will take the next simple step and you will be receiving in the near future a paper talking about our project. Session concluded at 7.00 pm