No. 10

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The information-based economy

15 December 2004

Politics

RiTo No. 10, 2004

  • Kaarel Kilvits

    Professor of Economic Policy, Tallinn University of Technology

To move in the direction of an information-based economic policy, we will need to act rapidly and decisively, or we will not be sustainable or competitive and Estonia will end up a poor border state of the European Union. What do we need to do and what can we do?

To this point, economic policy has been relatively successful from a macroeconomic standpoint, in creating an economic environment. It should continue to embody the same general principles. Development of a high-tech processing industry with great added value must be declared a state priority. We need to orient more forcefully toward international exchange of technologies and especially its model of capital. In order for high technology, market connections, a working culture, to come into the country. Along with foreign investments, there has to be more cooperation with big high-tech corporations and high-tech capital in general. In making international technology exchange a reality and adapting and improving adopted technologies, we need to draw on engineers, and the University of Technology that turns them out, more than we have in the past; to sharply increase applied scientific research and funding of research at the Tallinn University of Technology. We need to follow the principle that scientific studies are not only undertaken with the goal of discovering, inventing, and finding out something. Scientific research is essential for preserving and raising the level of higher education, and preparing engineers who are competitive on an international level.

If we are active in these ways, we will have a chance to move rapidly in the direction of an information-based economy, even with our small and poor state’s limited resources, and thus ensure Estonia’s sustainability, international competitiveness and the increased well-being of the populace.

Full article in Estonian

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