A Review of the Development of High-tech Industries in the World¹

Nowadays, the high-tech industry is one of the world's fastest growing industries. Observed from its characteristics, the high-tech industry often refers to those business complexities based on high-techs, engaged in one or more high-techs, in research and development of products, production and technical services, so both high-tech manufacturing industries and high-tech service industries are included. The time for the world’s high-tech industrial development is not long. American Silicon Valley is the world's first high-tech industrial zone and the world's most innovative and dynamic high-tech park today. Since the 1990s, high-tech industries in the world went into a period of steady development. In 2008, the European Union had about 50,000 high-tech manufacturing enterprises and 756,000 high-tech knowledge-intensive service enterprises. The paper here aims to give a brief historical overview of the development of high-tech industries in the world.