UK could reinvent itself with more investment into technology

An IT based stimulus package would generate a multiplier effect that would benefit the whole of the UK economy according to arguments in a report released recently by the London School of Economics.

According to industry expert the report named ‘The UK’s digital road to recovery’ could not have come at a better time.

The LSE has now provided solid evidence to the sentiments of Peter Mandelson, the business secretary, with hard figures just shortly after he made talked strongly about securing ‘more high-value jobs’ and ‘removing barriers’ in the hi-tech economy.

Based on information from the joint LSE-Information Technology & Innovation Foundation report around 700 000 jobs would be created, with half of these post being accounted for by smaller businesses, with an additional £15 billion investment in the IT infrastructure in the UK. The investment would need to be split between intelligent transport, the smart power grid and broadband according to proposals from the authors of the report.

The growing calls for investment into IT come amidst the current bleak economic climate. The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts said that if the government didn’t invest in green technology, digital media and healthcare the country could stand to lose as much as £44 billion a year in the same week that the ‘New industry, New jobs’ report on investing for an upturn was published by Lord Mandelson’s Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform.

The stimulus bill for the regeneration of America’s economy saw investment in emerging technologies and broadband included by President Barack Obama, whilst a further €2.4bn (£2.2bn) for energy infrastructure and broadband were included in the preliminary draft EU budget for 2010 by the European Commission.

Experts have advised that the issue of investment in technology has to take a front seat in the current deepening recession. A move to renewed prosperity from the current post-war economic would partially driven by technology.