A few Asian start-ups have already begun to cash in. Malaysia's MSC star is BizTone, a firm that makes Internet-based business software and is due to become the first Malaysian company listed in America when it goes public on Nasdaq this year. BizTone's Australian founder, Darryl Carlton, could have based his company anywhere. Asia's tigers have other advantages too. The region is already a center of IT hardware manufacturing.
Many Asian countries boast young, well-educated workforces.
Their business cultures can cope with risk-taking. Or maybe not. Many of the billions of dollars Asian countries are spending to reproduce Silicon Valley's high-tech hum will be wasted. Asia does have a high-tech future but it is not the one its governments are hoping for. First, Asia is a tough place to create a Microsoft, to say nothing of an AOL or eBay.