Minister urges Europe to raise its IT game

Europe should make a greater effort to fully take advantage of IT opportunities to improve its economy.

Speaking at the i2010 ICT conference in London today, DTI industry minister Alun Michael said, “Forty per cent of European productivity is due to ICT but our counterparts elsewhere in the world are doing even more to harness these economic benefits of ICT.

“We must not be complacent in Europe - we must raise our game. The i2010 Strategy is our blueprint to make Europe the most competitive and knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010.”

The i2010 Strategy was adopted by the European Commission this summer and the i2010 conference was being held in London as part of the UK’s presidency of the European Union.

The aim of the i2010 Strategy is to ensure that Europe improves its industrial competitiveness, supports growth and the creation of jobs, and aims to address key social challenges.

Michael said that achieving the goals of the i2010 Strategy was not just the work of governments and the European Commission, but of every European citizen.

Viviane Reding, European Union commissioner for information society and media, said, “Many of our citizens are concerned about their jobs and about their future. We will not be able to address these concerns efficiently if we resort to economic policy instruments of the past, or even to protectionism.”

She said,“We will only strengthen economic growth and thereby create more and better jobs for Europeans if we open our markets, if we invest into ICT as the most productive sectors of the economy, and if we make sure that superfluous regulation is abolished.”