Britain needs to invest in our Digital Economy to remain a world leader in the 21st Century Knowledge Based Economy

Yesterday I chaired a fringe event at the Lib-Dem conference on the Digital Economy.

Investing in the Digital Economy is vital to Warwick & Leamington where there are a significant number of Jobs, from global corporations such as IBM and Accenture to the computer games industry and high tech automotive research.

There is a lot talk about cuts in expenditure, yet at the same time investment in infrastructure, skills and enterprise is vitally needed in areas of our economy. Whatever comes out of the current economic crisis it is clear that information technology will play a large part. Britain is currently a world leader in IT. Yet Britain risks falling behind if we do not make investment, part of a clear strategy for economic recovery.

Fellow Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidates took part in a Dragon’s Den to grill industry representatives on information society topics. The workshop addressed important issues such as child protection, jobs of the future and delivering public services at lower cost.

Philip Virgo, Secretary General of the Parliamentary Group on the information Society organising the event said, that most other issues would be irrelevant unless the UK can create, attract and retain the wealth-creating jobs of the future.

UK Digital Road to Recovery - Good for Warwick & Leamington

Last Thursday I attended a meeting in Parliament organised by Eurim, a cross party group on the information society.We were discussing the recently published Digital Britain paper.

Anyone interested in IT and involved in the industry should read the management summary of this document, as it lays out the governments strategy for building our digital infrastructure. Why?

Isn't this just a collossal waste of tax payers money?

Well no. It will create jobs that will help stimulate the economy and it will leave us with the infrastructure Britain needs to compete in the 21st century economy and by applying IT to the delivery of public services we can get a better services, such as when we renew our tax disk and as tax payers we can make savings in public expenditure.

Warwick and Leamington are set to benefit from this. We have several large IT organisations & creative industries within our towns. We have the kind of towns that attract the skills to take advantage of this new economy.

Of course the interesting debate is, who will pay for all of this. My view is that private enterprise should be encouraged to build as much of this as possible. After all the internet has evolved soley through the private sector with little government involvement. Though where government needs to assist is with training the skills needed and investing in difficult to reach parts of the network.