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Foreword
Regions have acquired new prominence in the development of national economies in the recent past due to increasing globalization and the role of high technologies in economic development. High-technology-based industries, in particular the electronic hardware and the computer software industries, have played a leading role in the emergence of a new knowledge-based global economy. These industries require highly skilled, flexible, and mobile labor, and emerging economies have gained new opportunities to develop such businesses. These opportunities have provided the impetus for the growth and development of highly specialized agglomerations of these industries in specific regions within these economies. At the same time, expanding markets have also exposed these industries to greater competition. The development of these industries has often been driven by regional and local economic policies that aim at