A policy perspective on how ICT has acted as an enabler for a vibrant, entrepreneurial region

Intervention by  the Norwegian Minister of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs, Ms Rigmor Aasrud at "Challenging the Nordic and Baltic ICT Powerhouse", a joint high-level seminar, organised by CEPS, the Baltic Development Forum and Microsoft, to explore both successes and shortfalls of northern competitiveness 23 January 2013.

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First of all, I would like to thank the organizers - Microsoft and the Baltic development forum, for arranging this seminar and the opportunity to attend.

I am happy to be here, take part in, and most of all, be able to listen to, and learn from this distinguished assembly of speakers and other participants.

I will present our policy perspective - focusing on how ICT is an enabler for a vibrant region and economy, mainly from the Norwegian point of view, and more importantly – how we can ensure that this development continues in the future.

In my intervention I will raise the following points:

First and foremost: The Norwegian Government regards ICT - and the Internet - as an important factor for creating growth, jobs and new services.

ICT influences our everyday life in many profound ways. It allows for new ways of communication and social relation. ICT is also a critical factor for productivity increases in other parts of the economy – such as oil, marine and shipping. ICT is also regarded as the main driver for the development of the service economy.  

Secondly: The ICT-sector should be seen as a sector that by itself generates value and contributes to economic growth and jobs. Let me give you a few examples from the Norwegian statistics:

• The revenue generated from the ICT-sector, compared to other sectors (except oil and gas), was nearly five percent in 2010.
• Almost three percent of the total number of employees worked in the ICT sector. This exceeds the number of employees in other parts of the economy (excluding offshore oil industry).
• The level of employment within the sector increased by 8 percent, from 2007 to 2010. Other parts of the economy (offshore and oil and gas excluded) experienced a growth of 2.4 percent.

Thus, the ICT-sector is an important value creator in itself. But it is also an important enabler for other sectors of the economy, businesses, and the society as a whole.

I have also seen evidence indicating that some 50 000 new jobs were created within the ICT-sector in the Nordic countries over the last four years.

Thirdly, and this follows the argument from my previous point: ICT affects all aspects of business, all sectors and the economy as such.

• A study from the University of Groningen states that 50 percent of the European productivity gains are related to the use of ICT and the internet
• We can see these studies reflected on a national level too, with figures stating that 43 percent of the private sector’s total spending on R&D is related to ICT.
• Furthermore, also from national studies, in a survey among 2000 business managers, 76 percent said that ICT solutions will play an increasingly important part in keeping their competitive edge. 

For many reasons, these might be the most important factors to be considered, when discussing the role of ICT and the ICT sector. This will of course also apply for the public sector. My government launched a public sector digitization program last spring. The main goals of that program is to render most of public services ”digital by default” – meaning that digital communication shall be the main way people and businesses communicate with the public administration.

My fourth point, is the issue of digital literacy, skills and also entrepreneurial skills. As a whole, the Norwegian population is more or less online. This is a situation we share with our neighboring Nordic countries. In Norway, 86 percent use online banking and 90 percent have broadband access. But still, some groups lag behind, mainly the elderly and people with low income, low education or people without a job.

These issues need to high on our political agenda in the future years to come. We will present a political response to this challenge in our upcoming Digital Agenda.

We also need to educate enough people with high-level and relevant ICT skills, as well as entrepreneurial skills. This means that we must make sure that the young generation wishes to study tech-related academic fields. We have to inspire them as early as in kindergarten.

In many respects we have a strong knowledge base, not to mention people with highly specialized skills in areas such as search-engine-technology. And we have recently learned that Microsoft will establish a technology center within that field in the northern city of Tromsø. Also people in other fields, beside the traditional ”tech-environments”, such as health workers or the police force, must  have the skills and knowledge that allows them to utilize ICT in their fields. In this way, expected productivity gains from ICT may be realized sooner rather than later.

These are challenges and efforts that need multiple strategies. The business sector, the educational sector, the R&D-institutions, as well as other stakeholders need to cooperate. Access to advanced ICT-competence is one of the main topics to be addressed in the upcoming Norwegian Digital Agenda – that will be presented to the parliament as a White Paper shortly.

In Norway, computer literacy is implemented in our national curriculum, as a basic skill, in line with mathematics, reading and writing. It varies, though, how this is implemented in the schools. The teachers’ ICT-skills are an important factor and vary a lot. A recent report suggests that we also consider implementing computer-programming skills in our school curriculum, as part of a strategy to increase our ICT and technology skills base. I have understood Estonia already has put that kind of measures in place.

My fifth point is the issue of innovation and digital content.

ICT and digital content find new ways of creating value. In many respects they challenge existing business models.  We see new services or apps launched that we did not know we needed or would even dream to purchase. Some of them have proven to be very popular - such as Angry Birds from Finland, or WordFeud from Norway. Others have a more specific function, like Kikora, a mobile app for mathematics, that has proven successful in Norway.  Open public data has often been the source for these services or apps. Thus, easy access to public sector data sets is important for creating new, innovative services based on digital content. In 2011, I appointed a public committee that was asked to identify important barriers to digital growth. Earlier this month I received the committee report. The report highlights topics such as broadband infrastructure, copyright, privacy, financial support for the content-sector, to mention a few of them.

Many of these issues are also on the European Digital Agenda, as far as we can see. Hopefully this will give us possibilities for additional growth in the future.

The oil and offshore supply industry has been one of the main sources of jobs and growth in Norway for the last 40 years.

It has been argued that Norway had been too dependent on our oil resources. The oil, it has been argued, has acted as a barrier – or even a sleeping pill - to creativity, innovation and new entrepreneurial activity. When other economies have been forced to innovate, Norway could ”keep calm and rest”. That’s wrong, and fails to reflect that our oil and gas sector in fact has been discovered, innovated and created. It has been driven by research, innovation, highly skilled manpower, and information and communication technology.

In many respects, the oil and gas sector in Norway is in part our leading ICT-sector.

I launched the first part of Norway’s Digital Agenda when I put forward the program for more digital solutions in the public sector last spring. Now I am about to launch a white paper to the Parliament. Here I will present our policy to utilize ICT in the society as a whole with the main goal of ensuring economic growth and creating jobs.

European Union’s efforts as, well as our neighboring Nordic countries’ success, inspire us in so many ways. We highly appreciate the possibility to discuss ICT here in Brussels today.

Thank you so much for the attention. I look forward to the rest of the discussion.