Countries that are serious about moving along the high tech spectrum, have a strategy to do so. For example, Japan, Germany and China have a systematic approach to developing, acquiring and manufacturing advanced technology to build major industries.
In Japan, there’s the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Germany has the Fraunhofer-Geselschaft and in China, it’s the entire government and communist party.
By contrast, in the U.S., Congress axed the only program designed to keep this country moving forward on the technology continuum, according to tradereform.org. Congress defunded the Technology Innovation Program (TIP) and did not fund the proposed Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia (AMTech) program.
It’s no surprise then, that America is a small player in advanced technology.
