ICC Hosts meeting at CeBIT on challenges facing ICT growth

Hannover, Germany 14 March 2007.

In a first-ever meeting on the sidelines of  CeBIT, the world’s largest information technology trade fair of its kind, ministers and CEOs agreed today to mobilize their support and increase collaboration to accelerate the use of  information and communications technologies (ICTs) as engines of economic growth.

The round table discussion was sponsored by ICC Germany, CeBIT and ICC, through its newly-created initiative to communicate business priorities on ICT and Internet issues, Business Action to Support the Information Society (BASIS).

The meeting attracted an impressive array of ministers, including: Michael Glos, German Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Kan ‘ichiro Aritomi, Japan’s Vice Minister for Policy Coordination of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and Tarek Kamel, Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, along with the CEOs of SAP and NRC, Henning Kagerman and Bill Nuti, respectively. The Chairman of ICC and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, and Vice Chairman of Ericsson, Marcus Wallenberg, moderated the panel.

ICTs are important drivers of innovation, employment and economic growth everywhere. These technologies help raise efficiency in business processes and increase access to markets, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. Not only are ICTs drivers of economic growth, they represent a large and growing share of economic activity. For example, computer and information services were the fastest-growing exports in the services sector from 1995 to 2005.  What’s more, the share of these exports from developing countries in 2003 rose to one-fifth by 2003 from 4% previously.

“Business and government have important roles to play in furthering ICT growth. Business has an essential function as a major investor in research and development and in the network and infrastructure,” Mr. Wallenberg said during the discussion. “To have the necessary incentive to invest, business relies on governments to foster an environment where intellectual property rights are protected and the legal system is predictable.”

 Other necessary conditions for business to increase investment are for governments to create a competitive playing field and provide incentives for entrepreneurship and innovation.

To facilitate a safe and unhindered flow of information and the spread of knowledge, government and business working together can produce the most effective legal, policy and regulatory frameworks.  More collaboration is also the key to addressing global threats, such as cybersecurity, which require harmonized solutions and business input to successfully solve these challenges.

Working together is also vital to scale up promising technologies and business models in the developing world, where the largest share of growth in ICT will come from. For example, the next billion Internet users will largely hail from the developing world.

To that end, BASIS will be discussing at its upcoming meeting in March concrete ways to boost ICT use in the developing world.  “Initiatives which pool the resources of business, government and NGOs will be an important component of any efforts to deliver the benefits of the Information Society to many more citizens in these countries,” said Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman and CEO of TAGI in the Arab States and who also Chairs ICC’s commission on E-Business, IT and Telecommunications as well as BASIS.

Panelists agreed to take up the critical issues raised in the discussion in Hannover that affect ICT growth when they return home in discussions with government agencies, business and civil society, to ensure that policymakers and legislators have the most updated information to take effective decisions. The group also discussed ways to train, educate and attract the most qualified ICT staff, another important challenge to develop and integrate ICTs into the fabric of the economy.