It hardly needs saying that universities are hotbeds of innovation that leads to economic growth. In the U.S., Stanford University grads helped transform a stretch of Californian orchards into Silicon Valley, the incubator for companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo and other household names in technology. Every country seems to have set up its own version of Silicon Valley, which it hopes will incubate new and exciting technologies. PTT, Thailand's largest energy conglomerate, wants to create something similar in Wang Chan, a picturesque district in Rayong province along Thailand's eastern seaboard, where fruit farms and rubber plantations spread among rocky outcrops. The oil and gas company is investing some 6 billion baht ($167 million) to build a research park in the area, which it calls Wang Chan Valley, and plans to nurture a new generation of scientists. Credit and view full story at NIKKEI