High-Technology Industries

HIGH-TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIES utilize and depend on advanced scientific and engineering applications; for example, aerospace, BIOTECHNOLOGY, computers, pharmaceuticals, SUBSEA TECHNOLOGY and telecommunications. In BC during the 1990s the "high-tech" sector of the economy grew faster than any of the traditional export sectors. By 2004 the sector employed 64,600 people and had revenues of close to $14 billion. Of the 8,288 high-tech companies operating in BC, the majority were locally owned. The sector is heavily concentrated in the Greater VANCOUVER area (68%) with secondary concentrations on Vancouver I (16%) and the Thompson–Okanagan. The BC sector ranks third in the country after Alberta and Ontario in terms of GDP generated by high tech.