Looking beyond bricks & mortar

By Keith Newman

Between the lines

Isn't it about time someone hoisted the mainsail? Recent events may make you wonder whether politicians and the economy at large are simply drifting because of a lack of vision and direction.

Government research and development funding is still largely channelled to commodity-based industries, but they continue to suffer from long-term decline of world prices. The depressing trend was highlighted once again yesterday by a report from Industrial Research, a crown research institute.

The same low-tech mindset is apparent throughout the economy. Banks, for example, will not touch software development as collateral for loans - they still only believe in bricks and mortar.

As a country, we've fallen behind in technology and economic development. One expert who has identified the weakness is Prof Michael Porter of Harvard. He concluded that we had tackled many macro economic reforms, but we had not tackled micro-economic reforms necessary to stimulate innovation, investment and new industries.

We had managed to deregulate, privatise, sell off our assets and make the economy more efficient, but we had failed to develop our education and technology skills and our game plan to make the most of the digital future.

The software, information technology and electronics industries got together and talked up a storm about showing a united front to the world so New Zealand would be seen as a haven for high tech industry and investment.

But reality lags far behind, particularly in Government. John Manning, the manager of Technology NZ, the Government agency which helps fund the upgrading of technology skills in New Zealand companies, was recently relieved of his duties after suggesting some R&D funding should be switched from commodity to high-tech industries.

And the 250-member Software Association lost its funding from Trade NZ because it did not stick with the programme. Its cousins - the Information Technology Association and NZInc, a charitable trust set up to improve prospects for high-tech growth - say Government support for high-tech industries is going backwards.

You would expect the latest exports figures for the IT industry would have given the Government cause to celebrate. But it said nothing after Statistics NZ reported annual sales for the information technology industry, onshore and offshore including telecommunications services, are around $9 billion.

Yes, the exports are large and growing, but the sector is developing more slowly here than in advanced countries. It is said without a vision, the people perish.

So where are the visionaries to lead us into the high tech future? Without them, the digital revolution could largely pass us by.