Look to role models, says economist

By ADAM GIFFORD

Prime Minister Helen Clark's pre-conference warning the Knowledge Wave talkfest shouldn't only be about what the government should do struck a responsive chord with one of the opening speakers, Deutsche Bank Germany chief economist Norbert Walter.

In a speech which had echoes of the new right path followed by the previous Labour Government, Dr Walter urged the conference to look to the United States as a model for a knowledge society precisely because of its government's relative absence from higher education and research.

He said the knowledge sector was not organised by the state but was "self-organised".

One of its most important features was its ability to build networks, so the alumni associations of the universities became important for career building and future funding.

"We are talking about providing activity and involvement of active citizens. In many of our countries, we have delivered the functions of research and education to politicians rather than caring ourselves," Dr Walter said.

Ireland also had value as a role model, because of the way it had turned itself from an agricultural to a service economy and changed its mind set from emigration to immigration.

"To achieve that, they have have made full use of a well developed education system and relied of foreign Irish for networking and capital. It's very important and should be copied."

While Finland entered the information economy early, it had done so on the back of one company, Nokia.

The willingness of Koreans to learn and their refusal to accept anything but the best technology are good examples, but the country is being held back by big conglomerate companies.

He said Singapore looked good on the outside, but the capital productivity of its savings was half that of Hong Kong, where organisations were more willing to take the risk of failure.

Dr Walter said the development of the West had disadvantaged family life, and it could learn from Asia about family values.

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