Today’s technology has the potential to play a tremendous role in helping drive efficiency, productivity and competitiveness. Advances in cloud computing combined with a broad spectrum of new devices, natural user interfaces such as voice or gesture command and innovative applications that utilise these networks and devices create opportunities for us to interact with data and each other in ways that were previously unimaginable. Countries can take advantage of these developments as they seek to build economies that focus less on exporting natural resources and instead seek to drive value-added products and services.
National Competitiveness is a term that can be defined on a number of levels. At its most basic level, a country’s competitiveness requires a good use of human and natural resources for a country to achieve some goal. The goals that a country chooses are a reflection of the philosophy of the country, but they typically have two things in common: productivity and efficiency. A country can achieve a better competitive position through its ability to introduce productivity and efficiency into its use of these human and natural resources. Ultimately, the competitiveness focus of a country is intended to drive some higher order benefit – from improved quality of life to longer life expectancy – but the common language for such goals tends to focus on increasing the inflow of capital to the country, in the form of exports or foreign direct investment.
In short, national competitiveness represents a country providing a foundation that enables its human and natural resources to attract global attention – either as a trade partner or as a prime location for foreign direct investment. To drive the best long-term outcomes for a country, the focus should be on plans that are sustainable over the long term. This approach will ensure the competitive advantage will not run out (i.e. depleting the rainforests) or otherwise hurting the long-term viability of the country’s competitive advantage (i.e. continually exporting top-talent, hampering the potential for home-grown innovation or educating the next generation of talent). As stated above, a focus toward delivering differentiated, value-added services can be a source for such sustained competitive advantage, and helps ensure a sustainable economic driver in contrast to undifferentiated resource exports.
MODEL OF A MODERN NATION
Last year, I highlighted 5 themes that can help a country focus its efforts toward its long term competitiveness. Over the past year, we’ve identified seven additional areas for consideration that can help a country in its efforts to drive above-average growth. We have assembled a framework that we have dubbed a ’Model of a Modern Nation’. [Fig. 1]
The first four areas represent basic services that a country’s government typically provides for its citizens.
EDUCATION Opportunity and prosperity are achieved and maintained primarily through sustainable economic growth, which is driven in large part by the collective ability to cultivate new ideas and transform them into innovative business models, products and services. Individuals who possess critical thinking and digital literacy skills and who pursue lifelong learning encounter an entirely different life path than the ones available to those without an education.
HEALTH A healthy population is critical for national competitiveness in a number of important ways. A healthy workforce is more productive over a longer time horizon-an important objective for countries facing the challenge of an aging population. And countries that are able to minimise healthcare costs as a percentage of GDP can invest the savings in other areas that foster economic growth.
PUBLIC SAFETY Communities have high expectations of their public safety agencies, such as police, fire and emergency response departments, as well as the court system. Pressure to operate more efficiently and increase staff productivity is compounded by the growing challenges of terrorism, organised crime and illegal online activity.
TRANSPARENCY Government transparency allows citizens to become more engaged in important political, social and economic discussions, and enables greater collaboration between the public and private sectors. Technology can help governments become more transparent, efficient and effective in delivering services, thereby improving their interaction with citizens and businesses and improving the country’s overall economic competitiveness.
As countries seek to improve the quality of service of the basic functions listed above, technology offers clear opportunities to improve quality of service while reducing cost. However, as technology solutions are planned and implemented, it is critical that the following four areas are considered carefully and policy is implemented that reflects both the objectives and philosophy of the country.
SECURITY A growing number of public and private-sector organisations are adopting cloud computing to increase efficiency, gain cost savings and realise other benefits. But as individuals, businesses and governments increasingly rely on the cloud to exchange data and conduct transactions, security has become a top concern.
PRIVACY Cloud computing offers individuals and organisations innovative services, potential cost savings and many other attractive benefits. Although cloud services such as email and instant messaging have been around for nearly 20 years, new privacy challenges are emerging as more data move to the cloud. Many laws that were designed to protect individuals’ personal information are no longer adequate, and users are increasingly concerned about whether the data they create, share or store through cloud services will remain private and secure.
DATA SOVEREIGNTY As governments incorporate cloud computing services into their operations and consider public policy issues associated with the cloud, the issue of data sovereignty has proven to be especially challenging. Data sovereignty considerations generally revolve around the geographic location or locations in which individuals’ information is stored and accessed. Some jurisdictions have laws that require government data to remain within specific geographic boundaries because of concerns about data control and risk mitigation. In other countries and regions, approaches to data sovereignty are influenced by cultural norms or philosophical beliefs.
OPENNESS Governments today are taking advantage of transformative technologies, from the internet and innovative mobile devices to social networking and cloud computing, to deliver services and information more efficiently, transparently and collaboratively. This technological evolution is driven in part by a strong desire for more openness by technologies working together, vendors paying attention to their customers and governments listening to their citizens. This desire for more openness comes from the fact that businesses and governments today have diverse and complex needs that no single IT company alone can address. There is a need for different kinds of software to work together to foster industry growth and innovation, provide greater customer choice and help to maximise return on IT investments.
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT A nation’s workforce is a renewable, sustainable resource that is critical to economic growth. Given the global economic challenges and the increasing demand for knowledge workers, cultivating an adaptable, skilled and literate workforce should be a national priority for all countries. Workforce programmes should be tailored to the needs of the information economy and should emphasise training strategies that increase citizens’ employability.
JOB CREATION Creating an environment that offers all citizens the opportunity to realise their potential through meaningful employment is a key element of a successful economy. Job creation is fuelled by a variety of factors, including access to capital, innovation, education, skills development, reduction of barriers to business creation, intellectual property protections and a business and regulatory environment that encourages entrepreneurship.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY Mitigating the impact that humans have on the planet has become one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. The global focus on reducing carbon emissions and making better use of natural resources is intensifying, and the theme of environmental sustainability is increasingly influencing economic activity, consumer choices and government regulations and systems. As national governments grapple with minimising their environmental impact, they must continue to provide services to their citizens and ensure that their country’s economic growth is sustainable. Meeting these challenges requires innovation, more streamlined processes and deeper insight into resource use and waste streams – advances that technology can help make possible.
The question remains, how best to prioritise these factors to ensure long-term success? No country can magically improve every pillar overnight, given that we all operate in the real world where resource constraints and tradeoffs are a part of every decision. For countries that have celebrated a history of strong competitive positions that pre-date the global indices such as the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, much of the above has evolved organically over many years. However, for the rest of the world, the factors above can be optimised to help drive advancement in the key industries in which the country can truly differentiate itself on a global level.
INDUSTRY CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT Countries that compete successfully on a global scale often specialise in a discrete set of industries in which, through use of indigenous resources, investment or both, they have developed world-class capabilities. These industry clusters often receive support from both the public and private sectors and are factored into long-term goals for education, workforce planning, research and development and investment. Industry clusters can form the foundation from which new and successful industries emerge, and increasingly, those industries are heavily knowledge-based and are sustained by a pipeline of skilled workers.