How is the American-led war in Iraq affecting Asian countries and their relations with the United States? Is a clash of civilizations underway? Will Islamist rage in Southeast Asia spawn terrorist attacks on Americans there? Will Islamist parties in Indonesia be able to ride this wave of anger into power in the elections to be held in April 2004? Will the regime in North Korea take advantage of American preoccupations in Iraq and Afghanistan to escalate tensions in Northeast Asia? How will the economies of Southeast and Northeast Asia be affected by the conflict in Iraq? Will Washington's priority on ousting Saddam Hussein undermine its effort to stabilize Afghanistan? And what will the repercussions in Asia be if, against the expectation of many observers, the Iraq war turns out to be short and the seeds of Iraqi democracy are successfully sown?

This is third Huang Lian Memorial Lecture at the Center for Economic Development and Policy Reform at Stanford University.

During the past few years, significant economic growth, together with mature talent and huge market potential, have attracted a larger number of entrepreneurs and venture investment to create a high-tech start-up fever in China. While the outcome of these new enterprises in terms of business success and financial return are still unclear, the recent economic downturn in the United States has further fueled this trend. As a participant of venture investment activities in China during the past two years, Dr. Chwang will take a candid look at the opportunities and challenges of private entrepreneurship in China. He will discuss the interactive dynamics of this new growth in the Greater China region. He will examine the Silicon Valley influence on this phenomenon and the pros and cons of applying the Valley's model in China.

Ronald Chwang is the chairman and president of Acer Technology Ventures (ATV) America. Dr. Chwang initiated the Acer venture investment activities in North America with the launch of a $40 million "Acer Technology Venture Fund" in 1997. Subsequently, ATV's investment scope was further expanded after the successful formation of the second fund, a $260 million "IP Fund One", in May 2000, together with new investment activities in key regions of the Asia Pacific.

Dr. Chwang currently serves actively on the board of a number of ATV's portfolio companies such as Reflectivity, iRobot, and OctaSoft. He also serves on the board of the following public companies: Silicon Storage Technology Inc. in Sunnyvale, California, Acer Laboratories Inc. ,and Ambit Microsystems Corp. in Taiwan.

From 1992 to 1997, Dr. Chwang was president and CEO of Acer America Corporation. Under his leadership, Acer America's revenue grew from $200 million to $1.44 billion. Dr. Chwang has been with Acer since 1986, serving in various executive positions leading business units engaged in ASIC products, computer peripherals, and Acer-Altos server system. Before joining Acer, Dr. Chwang worked for several years in development and management positions at Intel in Oregon and Bell Northern Research in Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Chwang received his B. Eng. Degree in Honors Electrical Engineering from McGill University in Montreal, and his Ph.D. in EE from the University of Southern California.

Following the successful migration of semiconductor foundries business to Taiwan, IC design houses are now flowing to Asia. As a result, the opportunities for venture capital investments in Greater China are increasing. Based on on-the-ground experience gained during the past ten years dealing with high-tech venture businesses between Silicon Valley and Asia, Jesse Chen will share his unique perspective on the changing dynamics of risks, timing, business sectors etc. for optimizing investments in the high tech industry in Greater China.

Jesse Chen is managing director of Maton Venture. Maton is a global venture with strategic investors and VC partners from the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Taiwan. Launched in October 1997, Maton now has thirty-two portfolio companies across Semiconductor, Communication, Software and other Information Technology industries. As of December 2002, three have gone public and five have been acquired. Jesse currently serves as board member for eleven companies.

Before Maton, Jesse co-founded BusLogic, Inc. in 1988 and served as CEO and president until it was acquired in 1996. BusLogic designed and marketed ASIC, Board and Software for the computer storage industry. Under Jesse's leadership, BusLogic achieved twenty-two quarters of consecutive growth and profitability, yielding BusLogic's first investor more than sixty times return of investment within six years. BusLogic is now part of IBM.

Jesse also served as chairman of the Global Monte Jade Science and Technology Association from 1998 to 2000 and served as Chairman of Monte Jade West from 1997 to 1998. Monte Jade has more than one thousand high tech corporate members throughout North America and Asia and more than fifty are public companies.

With the world economy and particularly the technology sector in turmoil, venture capitalists are struggling to identify new opportunities before the next up cycle. Investing in Silicon Valley and the Greater China region continues to hold great promise for venture capitalists. With years of experience investing in both US and Asia, Mr. Chu will present some insight into comparing venture capital in US and Greater China. What are the differences and similarities in funds, managers, portfolio strategies, portfolio companies and exit strategies, etc.? How can we assess the pre-bubble and post Internet bubble venture environment? Last but not least, how will venture capital change in the coming years?

About the speaker
Peter Chu is a managing partner at AsiaTech, one of the first venture capital firms in Asia. AsiaTech focuses on growing early-stage technology companies in applications, software and services, and communications and infrastructure. Prior to joining AsiaTech in 1998, Peter co-founded two companies. He served as the president and executive producer of Channel A, an Internet content and commerce start-up and he was also a co-founder and marketing director at Envive Corporation. Previously, Peter worked at Verity Corporation and Oracle Corporation. Peter holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

The trend for globalization of high-tech industries has gained momentum during the last few years. In particular, the Asia Pacific region has become an increasingly important market for U.S. high tech companies. What investors, both the public market and VCs, look for now are companies with revenue growth and a clear path to profit. The challenge for technology companies and investors is to define the roadmap to weather through the current downturn and build strength to grow when the market returns. The companies that will succeed are the ones that are close to the market, with the ability to produce their products at a reduced cost.

China, with its mass population, is undeniably an enormous market. It not only presents a broad customer base for the high-tech industry, but also an attractive low-cost manufacturing center. There is no doubt that Greater China is a lucrative region to ride the next wave of high-tech industry growth. We all want to capture this golden opportunity. How do we address this huge consumer market? How do we fully utilize the emerging labor support to lower production costs? For venture capitalists, how do we find legitimate ways to get return on our investments?

Taiwan is now China's leading trade partner and investor. Over 25 percent of Taiwan's exports are headed to China, according to the latest official statistics. With its geographic proximity, a well-established technology and business support infrastructure, as well as a common language and similar culture background, Taiwan is well positioned as a gateway to the China. In addition, Taiwan has built a well-recognized capital market in the past three decades. This highly liquid capital market is the best support for the high-tech industry as well as VC players.

In this session, Katherine Jen, a veteran venture capitalist, will lead the audience through her strategy in the quest for the next wave of high-tech industry growth and identify the key success factors.

About the Speaker

Katherine Jen is the managing partner of AsiaTech Management, LLC, a venture capital firm investing in the Silicon Valley and Asia. Katherine's successful venture capital career began in the early eighties. During her two decades in the Ministry of Finance in Taiwan, Katherine ran a $3 billion government investment fund, instrumental in the founding of successful high-tech companies such as TSMC and Moses-Vitelic. She also served on the TSMC board of directors from 1989-1993.

Katherine was one of the pioneers in Taiwan's VC industry. She led many key initiatives in venture capital legislations, including the adoption of the first Venture Capital Act in Taiwan. She helped establish the first group of venture capital funds in Taiwan, including Hotung Ventures, H&Q Asia and Walden International Taiwan (IVCIC). In addition, she founded the venture capital firm Genesis Venture in Taiwan and successfully raised its first fund. As a leader in the Taiwan financial industry, she served on the board of International Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest commercial bank in Taiwan.

Based on the belief that Silicon Valley technologies can find much broader markets if they are combined with the efficient manufacturing industry in Asia, she founded AsiaTech and raised its first fund in 1997. Today, with operations in the Silicon Valley and Taiwan, AsiaTech manages three funds with strong backing from Asian-based manufacturing companies, commercial and investment banks, and government.