IT industry issues from Intellect - read our blog...
Politics, life after the reshuffle and the credit crunch
Concept Viability: Early engagement with industry
23/06/04
Government's 'Rear View Mirror' Approach is Damaging to UK Competitiveness
Intellect has today spoken out against the Government's continued use of economic measurements designed for 'old economy' needs, warning that continued measurement of the wrong things will result in implementation of the wrong policies, and a UK heading in the wrong direction.
Commenting at Intellect’s Annual Parliamentary Reception John Higgins, Intellect Director General said, "At present, the Government is using measurements designed for old economy needs, making it impossible to understand the UK's progress towards the new knowledge driven economy or effectively plan policies to support it. Statistics are often woefully out of date, giving views of past outcomes, or are collected infrequently, giving vague indications of progress."
To help rectify this situation Intellect has announced the launch of its own 'Intellect Index', a framework which will be designed to identify the gaps in Government’s current measurements, and highlight additional 'new economy' indicators which Government critically needs to consider. The Index will provide an invaluable insight into Government’s current data gathering practices, and crucially confirm whether current policy development is in line with the UK's knowledge economy aims, or is in fact working against them.
John Higgins continued, "The UK is facing rising competition from low-cost economies using new technologies, highly educated and skilled workforces and mobile capital within a rapidly changing global market. To compete within this market the UK must aim to become a knowledge driven economy, and successfully exploit knowledge for wealth creation across all industries and sectors."
"Whilst the Government has stated its commitment to this aim, it has failed to act quickly enough to gather the information it needs in order to develop supportive policy, or to develop a strategic vision of where it sees our future leading. The result is that we are treading water, unable to move forwards because the measurements being used by Government are looking back."
Intellect's initial twelve month programme of work has now begun with the creation of a steering group tasked with the development of an 'Ideal Index', the role of which is to measure national capabilities and to what extent we are currently exploiting them. From here Intellect will undertake a gap analysis of Government’s current data collection practices, before moving on to provide the first Index findings early 2005.
Press contact: Press Office T 020 7331 2168 E This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Full name Contact telephone number Publication (publications if you are a freelance writer) Areas of interest
