IT directors attending the conference on the cruise ship Aurora
were advised on future trends, essential skillsets for outsourcing
and the demands of new laws.
The world is on the point of undergoing a revolution as profound as
the industrial revolution and it will be fuelled by IT,
biotechnology and nanotechnology, delegates at the City IT forum
heard earlier this month.
Roger Bootle, managing director of Capital Economics, said, "People
have too easily written off the significance of technology, but IT
is making globalisation possible and is the platform on which the
other advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology [the manufacture
of systems of molecular size that emulate the behaviour of larger
systems] can stand."
He added that we can expect biotechnology to grow tenfold over the
next 10 years and for nanotechnology to have a bigger impact than
the introduction of electricity.
According to Bootle, China, the US and India will be the main
beneficiaries of this technological impact, as by 2025 they will be
the dominant world economies. He said that by 2025 there will not
be a single European country in the G7. These countries will give
way to Japan, Brazil, Russia and Mexico.
In the keynote speech at the conference, shadow chancellor of the
exchequer Oliver Letwin said the UK should look to emulate the
robust economic growth of the Irish economy, which has become a
centre for high-tech investment.