The CII Global Technology Initiative is an outgrowth of several requests to CII made by private sector companies and governments (mostly in emerging market countries) for technology which can help the companies and government agencies become more efficient.

These private sector companies are often trying to attract investment from international private equity funds and global mutual funds.

They believe that to attract attention from investment fund managers, they must adopt new technology and best practices and bring their operations up to global standards to be competitive. If they do this, they feel they will become an in country industry leader in their business sector and that is the indication investors need to make the decision to invest in one company rather than another.

CII works in many industry sectors including transportation (airlines, trucking companies, railroads), energy companies, telecommunications companies, IT companies, Contractors, retail and heavy industry.

As an example, an electric utility that becomes a "Franchisee" and uses modern maintenance and procurement data systems along with “leakage detection technology” and phone card type metering will be much more attractive as an investment.

State of the Art maintenance and construction technology may create a savings of 15 to 25% on operating cost. The leakage detection technology might cut leakage by 50%, thus enhancing revenues. The prepaid meter cards can cut down uncollected bills, etc. Adding a modern call center for marketing might help as well.

In the procurement areas, both the seller and buyer of goods can benefit. Technology exists that can let manufacturers, distributors and retail partners obtain data up and down the supply chain providing valuable information to managers at all levels.


CII Chairman Mark Grobmyer discusses Technology issues in New York with Alex Pentland, Head of the Media Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ellen M. Knapp, Chief Knowledge Officer and Global CIO of PriceWaterhouseCoopers and other participants.

The use of all of these technologies and others, can vastly improve the bottom line and in effect, be paid for out of savings. Most importantly, it attracts the attention of the global investment funds which can support the stock price of the companies involved.

CII is an active participant in the Asia Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) which involves meetings of the private sector and government leaders of more than 25 countries from Canada, Mexico, Peru and Chile to Australia, all the Asian Countries and as far north as Japan and Russia. APEC has formed special technology Task Forces in Transportation and Energy.

CII believes that the Global Technology Initiative presents some very good opportunities for technology companies that participate, while at the same time, serving as a catalyst for accelerated global economic development.