CCST to Assist with Innovation Strategy

AB 2711 (Portantino, Arambula, Price, and Salas), the California Innovation and Technology Policy Act, would require the Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing to convene a statewide business partnership for innovation and technology no later than March 1, 2009. The partnership would bring together representatives from high technology businesses, developers, and investors to help assess the competitiveness of California’s businesses in technology and innovation, and to prepare a strategy for technology and innovation and submit it to the Legislature on or before February 1, 2010. The bill would require the Legislature to hold a hearing on the strategy, and would require the secretary to report annually on the ways in which the Governor’s proposed budget relates to it and to periodically update the study and strategy. The bill would require the secretary to develop a state innovation and technology policy based on the study and strategy submitted to the Legislature.

The study called for by the bill would focus on the following:

• A discussion of California’s economy and its relationship to global markets, including identification of current and emerging trends, industries, and services and areas of comparative advantage to other states and foreign countries.
• An inventory of existing programs and services provided by local, state, federal, and private entities that serve, or could serve, technology-based businesses and an analysis of any gaps in those programs and services.
• An assessment of the current and future physical and human infrastructure related to technology and an analysis of any inadequacies in that infrastructure and the appropriate role for state government to improve this infrastructure.
• An assessment of existing public, academic, and private partnerships that support innovation and technology-based businesses.

CCST is cited as one of the organizations to be consulted in the preparation of this background study, along with the California Economic Strategy Panel, the California Commission on Industrial Innovation, the Office of the Small Business Advocate, the California Transportation Commission, the California Community Colleges, the University of California, the California State University, the California Workforce Investment Board, the Employment Training Panel, and the State Energy Resource Conservation and Development Commission.