Info Age Goes Global In Big Way

Growing cyber wealth and the rapid expansion of information and communication technology industries -- called ICT -- which includes telecommunications, computers and software, are increasingly in the news.

On Sept. 15, The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft had replaced General Electric at the top of the market capitalization tables in the United States. This is just one measure of the advance of the Information Age in this country.

A new study called "The Digital Planet: The Global Information Economy" provides the first comprehensive picture of the global dimensions of the Information Age. Prepared by International Data Corp. and the World Information Technology and Services Alliance, the new study finds a "huge and booming" global ICT sector creating tremendous wealth in all regions of the world.

The huge part: The global value of ICT industries is around $1.8 trillion -- about half the size of the economy of France and about 6 percent of total global gross domestic product -- and all regions are participating and benefiting.

The growing part: ICT spending was 40 percent larger last year than it was in 1992 and is growing 27 percent faster than overall worldwide GDP.

Other indicators: Over 118 million PCs are now installed in homes and schools worldwide, more than three times the 36 million installed five years ago. Similarly, Internet growth is exploding everywhere, from less than 3 million (mostly Americans) in 1994, when the World Wide Web was introduced, to more than 100 million today (only about half of whom are Americans) - with 320 million projected by 2002.

The study also shows that increased spending on information and communications technology is a "key accelerator, catalyst and multiplier" of other desirable social and economic outcomes. Examples: In the U.S. alone, ICT investments have created an average of 7,200 new taxpaying and employing ICT companies in each of the past five years -- and more than 90,000 net new enterprises have been added in North America, Australia, Japan and Western Europe since 1992. The same goes for job creation, where U.S. software and related services industries have created more than 380,000 jobs in the past five years.

Because these and other benefits don't happen by accident "The Digital Planet" also makes important policy recommendations. Examples:

• Invest. ICT investment is highly correlated with economic and enterprise growth, new company start-ups, personal productivity and job creation. Spending on ICT improves the ability of a company and a country to compete in the global market. Laggards will be left behind.

Though the U.S. has a substantial lead, that lead can be frittered away if private companies reduce investments in the Internet and if government agencies, like the Federal Communications Commission, continue to micromanage America's journey into the Information Age.