Free exchange
Growth through digitisation requires more than faster broadband connections
DO DIGITAL economies grow faster than analogue ones? Rich-country leaders seem to think so. G7 and European Union governments are committed to a variety of digital stimulus packages; Australia, the biggest spender, has promised broadband investment of $33.4 billion (or 3% of GDP) to connect 90% of homes at ultra-fast speeds. “Digitisation” involves adopting technologies like wireless phones and internet access to generate, process and share information. It seems to make sense that replacing slow technologies with faster ones might speed up sluggish economies. But does the case for investment stack up?
Listers
Interesting article. If you read nothing else from it at least take this out; "Analysis finds that digitisation on its own is not enough. Faster information boots output only when matched with astute ways of interpreting and acting on new data"
US firms tend to have more IT that comparable EU ones, and are better at squeezing productivity out of it." This is largely due to performance based management culture.
No debate however that at an aggregate level, digitization boosts GDP growth rates.
Paul Kukubo
CEO Kenya ICT Board
Sent from my iPad