Sponsor's Message

New Zealand's performance in the knowledge economy is sliding, with exports of ITC goods and services down by almost 15 percent last year.

But how can this be? After all, our politicians have paid such lip-service to fostering a local KBE so surely we ought to be surging ahead.

The high Kiwi dollar has clearly not helped - but surely that can't be the only reason. If we really had a robust KBE then people would be beating down our doors to buy our wares - so what's gone wrong?

At least part of the answer has to lie in this story which shows that while many innovative Kiwi knowledge-based ventures flounder for lack of funding, our "switched on" government seems more intent on throwing money at The Arts with little interest in accountability.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

Clearly Helen feels far more comfortable in photoshots that show her standing beside some hitherto unknown artist than she does in one containing a "geek" or "boffin".

Now I've bitched about this before but I'm unrepentant.

Dunnies that fart and bray do not significantly help our international performance in the global economy - and now this is starting to show.

Likewise, a government that seems to be yet another division of Telecom and therefore offers some of the world's most expensive business DSL connections without challenge does nothing for its nation's competitiveness.

Why aren't we right up there with Denmark and the USA at the top of the newly released Economist's "e-Readiness Ranking" index? (list at bottom of this page) Although we've climbed a little, we're still down at 16th position, behind such more switched-on countries as Norway, Austria and the Netherlands (believe it or not).

However, economic confidence is falling, interest rates are rising and all the indicators suggest that the "days of plenty" may be coming to an end. Unfortunately it's now far too late to revitalise the local hi-tech sector in time to offset the pending global recession.

No doubt Helen and Mike will tell us that they're doing a wonderful job and that the economic downturn we're about to experience is beyond their control - driven by global pressures and trends.

Bollocks!

If we hadn't been spending so much time and money on pictures of the PM posing with "the artist of the day" we might have taken the time necessary to ensure the mortgage was still being paid.

But no, this isn't an anti-political party broadcast - I have no doubt that a National-led government would have been no better. Indeed, I recall their abysmal performance in respect to fostering knowledge-based industries last time they were in power. And remember (as if we could forget) they're still pushing Maurice Williamson as their minister for ITC (shudder!).

I'm all out of ideas on this one. What do readers think is the best solution to what looks like a rather unsatisfactory situation in respect to governments who are just paying lip-service to helping us into the 21st century?

Aardvark Forums
The forums are back up at: www.aardvarkforums.co.nz/forums, have your say on today's column

If you feel that this is a good thing and/or you hold a "geniune affection" for yours truly -- then you are welcome to gift me some money using the buttons provided. In gifting this money you accept that no goods, service or other consideration is offered, provided, accepted or anticipated in return. Just click on the button to gift whatever you can afford. NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally gift more than what you were intending :-)

Contacting Aardvark
I'm always happy to hear from readers, whether they're delivering brickbats, bouquets or news tip-offs. If you'd like to contact me directly, please this form. If you're happy for me to republish your comments then please be sure and select For Publication.

Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights are also invited to contact me.

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!