We have an opportunity in Hawai'i to make a bold investment in our future. The Hawai'i Innovation Partnership (HB 2181) being considered in the state Legislature would allow us to seed an industry and secure a competitive foothold in a global market. We've been on the threshold before, but today we see the convergence of a number of factors that combined, prepare us as never before to seize opportunities to diversify and thus bolster Hawai'i's economy for many generations to come.

Adding urgency to the need for economic diversification is the ever-widening income gap between our citizens. Today, the ability to live in Hawai'i has become a challenge in itself for too many who cannot afford homes or find jobs that can support their families. Parents are working multiple jobs just trying to keep up. Longer hours at work mean those same parents have less time available to spend with their children. This harsh reality can change, however, with an affordable home and a living-wage job.

The good news is that while hardly anyone was noticing, Hawai'i has staked a foothold in the future, in companies and businesses that do pay a living wage.

Known collectively as "innovation industries," these companies are still small on the economic radar screen, but they are growing and creating a "third pillar" beyond just tourism and the military for Hawai'i's economic future. Alternative energy; telecom; software; digital media; astronomy and space sciences; marine-ocean sciences; healthcare and biotech; diversified agriculture and aquaculture; and environmental technologies — the last time the state measured these industries in 2001 they accounted for merely 5 percent of the state's employment but already accounted for 17 percent of gross state revenues from visitor, defense and innovation industries combined. In addition, the growth rate in the technology sector has been outperforming the growth of other private sectors.

It is time to accelerate the growth of these industries through wise public-private investment. We can already see this model at work in the development of a nascent life-sciences industry around our state's new medical school in Kaka'ako. Within the same block, Kamehameha Schools is seeking a developer to build a life-sciences facility to house scientists, researchers and staff from Hawai'i and around the world to apply science to improving lives. The medical school is acting as a magnet for other healthcare investments by the private sector.

We think the Hawai'i Innovation Partnership presents an opportunity for our elected leaders to get behind meaningful change for economic growth and diversification that is sustainable in the Islands.

The Hawai'i Innovation Partnership provides investment funding at a significant level to encourage aspiring local and offshore entrepreneurs, as well as venture funds, to invest their time and money creating new enterprises in Hawai'i and providing ongoing support to our existing technology startups. It provides state support for research and development by local companies to create competitive products and services that can help correct the imbalance of trade between what Hawai'i imports every year and what Hawai'i exports.

At $100 million, the investment is considerable for a state our size, but the return on this investment for taxpayers is potentially much greater: more jobs, competitive business that supports a highly skilled workforce and protects our environment at the same time. The fund, as it is currently structured, preserves the initial investment so it can continue to grow and provide economic stimulus. It is also professionally managed on the investment side, while the research and development projects are approved by panels of experts in the chosen fields of technology and life sciences. That's an important checkpoint if wise decisions are to be made in these constantly evolving fields.

Can it work? Other states have answered that question with a strong "yes." In 1982, the Pennsylvania General Assembly created the Ben Franklin Technology Partnership to promote technological innovation and spur economic growth. An independent analysis of the fund found that for every dollar invested, the state received nearly $23 in additional income. Pennsylvania has generated more than $400 million in additional tax revenue as a direct result of the program. Maryland, Utah, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Kansas and Massachusetts have statewide programs with similar track records for success.

There are risks involved in supporting technology, research and development and new enterprises.

However, considering what we have already achieved with local companies like Tissue Genesis, Hoku Scientific and others, what we have seen accomplished in successful job retraining through companies like Hawaiian Homestead Technology, this is a risk we believe worth taking. Right now these industries include more than 1,300 companies with about 30,000 jobs averaging $50,000 or more.

We have the means, the assets and capacity in Hawai'i to create self-determined, self-directed economic diversification and prosperity on our own terms in ways that do not destroy the environment and do not homogenize nor threaten our culture.

Business, political, education and community leaders of Hawai'i have a big challenge and a big opportunity to create new living-wage enterprises, and a prepared workforce to make history again in Hawai'i, a chance to offer more of Hawai'i's people opportunities that too often in the past they have had to seek elsewhere.

And with our full engagement in innovation industries, Hawai'i can be truly competitive in the global economy. Now it is time to provide the funds that can fuel this momentum.