Hawai'i high-tech firms agree on industry goals

By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer

The state's main technology business group, hoping to create a viable high-tech industry in Hawai'i, has identified the next steps it plans to take to further its goal.

At a summit last week, the Hawai'i Technology Trade Association, made up of representatives from dozens of local technology, professional and scientific firms, announced its first specific "action plan" since the group's formation in the late 1990s. The group wants to:

• Explore creation of a combined instrument pool so companies could lend highly specialized equipment to other Hawai'i firms.

The idea is to lower costs for startup research firms, which otherwise would have to buy their own equipment — and to generate additional revenue for owners of scientific instruments. The project is being headed up by Pat Sullivan, founder of Honolulu research firm Oceanit.

• Ease the rules for importation of restricted organisms by biotechnology companies. Biotech companies that use exotic plants and animals for their research have complained that state quarantine laws are vague, poorly worded and inflexible, and constitute a significant impediment to their business. The project is being headed up by Mark Goldman, a scientist with 'Aiea research firm Hawaii Biotechnology Group.

• Explore ways to make "noncompete contracts" less onerous to would-be entrepreneurs. Proponents argue that under current state laws, companies can stifle innovation by forcing workers to sign noncompete contracts that prevent employees from starting or working for rival companies.

This "right to innovate" project is being headed up by Tareq Hoque, the former president of Honolulu network testing company Adtech who resigned earlier this year and has said he intends to create a company in a similar field.

• Create a program to encourage "technology transfer," the commercialization of academic research.

The project seeks to create an applied technology research fund, with money coming from both the state government and industry matching funds. The fund would subsidize collaboration between academic researchers and private companies. The project is being headed up by telemedicine entrepreneur Frank Fukunaga and Keith Matsumoto of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research.

Other initiatives call for an improved state employee training fund; technology internships for public school teachers; an improved Web site for the state High Technology Development Corp.; "boot camps" to train service professionals on high-tech issues; and communications infrastructure improvements for the visitor industry.