Just as the Clinton Administration is trying to emulate the model established by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade & Industry to foster technological and industrial development, Japan is preparing to jettison that model, the Wall Street Journal reported. Officials it the mighty Ministry now say that design and construction of a $750,000m national fibre optic network needs to be left to the private sector: without loosening government’s grip on industry, we will slowly lose our competitiveness, says a senior MITI official. We are now a second class country and we may be downgraded to a third-class country if we don’t change our policies, he warned.
