E-minister Douglas Alexander has set out his vision of a UK economy
built on e-commerce.
Alexander was announcing the findings of the International
Benchmarking Study 2001, which puts the UK among the world leaders
in use of e-commerce.
Speaking at Interforum's E-connect 2001, the minister said:
"E-commerce is essential to the future growth of the UK economy.
The aim is to create a high skill, high wage, high productivity
economy."
The International Benchmarking Study, commissioned by the DTI
through the government's UK Online for Business agency, measured
the UK's performance against 10 other leading countries and its
success in meeting government targets.
Key findings include 80% of UK businesses having a Web site, an
increase from 66% last year, and a 20% increase in business trading
online from 2000.
In total, 1.9 million SMEs are online, exceeding the government's
target of 1.5 million by 2002, and nearly every UK region has at
least 75% of businesses with a Web site.
Alexander said: "The study confirms we are making progress towards
our primary aim of making the UK the best place in the world to do
e-business. The UK continues to be among the world leaders in
making more sophisticated use of technology to transform business
processes."
But the e-minister admitted that the government and industry had to
improve the roll out of broadband to move to the next stage of
e-commerce in the UK. "Broadband reduces development and production
time and breaks down geography," he said.
"Pushing broadband is government and industry's challenge. We have
set up the Broadband Stakeholders Group to hear the views of the
private sector, UK Online for Business is raising awareness and we
have just announced a £30m package of regional funds to help
broadband delivery," he added.
The e-minister also called on government and industry to "rise up"
to meet the key problem of bridging the digital divide and putting
more consumers and businesses on the Internet.
Government urged to act on broadband >>