Nevada No. 1 in tech export growth

Kevin Ferguson

Thursday, June 14, 2001 | 11:13 a.m.

Tech in Henderson

Henderson is one of four cities around the nation that satellite television ' giant Hughes Electronics is considering for the headquarters of its new high-speed Internet service operation, Hughes said.

Hughes plans to invest $1.4 billion in its "Spaceway" program, which Hughes said would provide improved high-speed Internet access to customers via satellite dishes. It's unclear how much of that $1.4 billion will be invested in the headquarters operation.

Henderson Economic Development Manager Bob Cooper said Hughes is looking for 15-plus acres for the site. An official at the Community College of Southern Nevada, which Hughes would use to find talent, said the operation is expected to employ about 200 people.

Nevada, thanks in part to its dominant gambling industry, led the nation in the growth of high-technology exports from 1997-2000.

Nevada's high-tech exports to other states and nations jumped 264 percent during the three-year period, while California had a growth rate of 33 percent, the American Electronic Association reports in its annual publication "Cyberstates 2001: A State-By-State Overview of the High-Technology Industry."

The information is based on government data, AEA said.

While Nevada's growth in technology exports is impressive, the state's technology industry remains tiny compared to neighboring tech giant California. The Silver State's tech exports amount to only about 1 percent of California's.

Nevada's growth rate was high in part because of a comparison to dismal figures of three years ago. Nevada companies produced high-tech exports in 1997 totalling $191 million, which ranked the Silver State 39th. In 2000 Nevada climbed six spots to 33rd. The state that year generated $697 million in high-tech exports.

Nevada officials said they don't know exactly which Las Vegas-area companies contributed to the increase.

"The AEA was very vague in defining high-tech products," said Alan DiStefano, director of global, trade and investment for Nevada's Commission on Economic Development.

There are four main categories of products the AEA considers high-tech. They are electrical and electronic devices, vibration-monitoring equipment, industrial machinery and computer equipment and miscellaneous manufacturing equipment.

"The only two companies in Southern Nevada among the state's 50 largest employers in those categories are Casino Data Systems and Bally Gaming," DiStefano said.

Casino Data and Bally make slot machines and other gaming industry products. Bally is a unit of Alliance Gaming Corp.

The government didn't release names of companies that ship products oversees in order to protect proprietary information, said Mark Albertson, senior vice president of AEA's western region.

Nevada climbed four spots from last year's report to 39th in high-tech employment with 19,803 related jobs. That number is an 84 percent increase from 1994.

Nevada ranked near the bottom -- 42nd -- in venture capital investment, the report said.