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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 3, 1984
PAGE 13
in today's high-tech world.
Inability or unwillingness to commit more
money to research and development and the political obstacles of a still
not-united Europe also came through. Highlights of the survey follow.
To examine the implications for Europe of the so-called third
wave of the industrial revolution, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL/Europe
questioned more than 200 chief executives from 16 European coun
tries. The survey produced stark evidence that Europe's execu
tives believe their continent has declined as a source of
technology leadership, with the u.�mainta1n1ngTts-top position
and Japan gaining in importance.
No European country ranks as the leading source in any techno
logical area, in the executives' view. In most fields the top
European country, usually West Germany, ranks a distant third
with the respondents....
Scandinavia wins some of the higher
marks in Europe, though it still lags behind the U.S., Japan and
West Germany.... All other European countries virtually cease to
register as widely recognized sources of technology leader
ship...•
Despite the rallying cry for intra-European cooperation in tech
nology, chief executives responding to the JOURNAL survey appear
to favor links with U.S. and Japanese companies rather than with
their continental neighbors...• "We decided quite early that we
had to be in the U.S., where the technology is," says Klaus Luft,
deputy chairman of Nixdorf Computer AG of West Germany. "The
power and speed of innovation in Silicon Valley and Route 128
(centers of technology, near San Francisco and Boston) can't be
equaled yet in Europe."•..
Executives seem to be of two minds. On the one hand, they are
looking for the best technology, wherever it is, and new markets.
On the other hand, they worry that if Europeans don't cooperate
among themselves to reduce deve!opment costs and achieve
economies of scale, their companies will become merely assembly
outposts in a world dominated by U.S. and Japanese manufac
turers••..
These problems are especially acute in the fast-moving telecom
munications field, says Wisse Dekker, chairman of N.V. Philips of
the Netherlands. European companies are "all so fragmented," he
complains. "Each one offers a market that is basically too small
to justify enormous amounts of money" for research and develop
ment.••• "If you find more competence with non-European than
European companies, it is stupid to go along with the Europeans,"
says...Dekker.... But, all things being equal, Mr. Dekker says,
"it is in the interest of Europe and also the world economy to
cooperate with other European companies."
One wonders when and how Europe will "get its act together." The sluggish
economic picture in Western Europe accelerates the desire also to protect
shrinking markets, aggravating trade difficulties with the U.S. Will the
Soviet Union play on these difficulties--and drive the wedge deeper between
Europe and America--by offering the Europeans greater economic opportuni
ties in the Soviet bloc?
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau