Vice President Gore, proud papa of the Internet and all its evils, recently released a new report titled "The Emerging Digital Economy II," which shows that information technology is fundamentally changing the way Americans work, live, communicate and play.
"Six and a half years ago, there were just 50 web sites around the world. Today, there are more than 6 million," Gore said. "Today, information technology is changing the way we live, learn, work and shop -- and it's most lasting impact is just emerging. This report finds that since 1995, even though information technology industries make up less than one percent of all retailers, they account for fully one-third of our nation's economic growth."
This report, prepared by the Commerce Department, specifically found that e-commerce is growing much faster than the most optimistic projections, IT-producing industries account for more than one-third of America's economic growth and reduce overall inflation. In 1996 and 1997, IT goods and services cut overall inflation by 0.7 percentage points.
In addition, the report also documents how businesses are investing in IT at unprecedented rates. From 1993 to 1998, IT investments accounted for more than half of the growth of real business equipment spending. By 2006, the report predicts that almost half of American workers will be employed by industries that either produce or intensively use IT. In 1997, IT-producing industries had a one-year increase of 7.7 percent as compared to average employment growth of about 3 percent.
IT workers earn 78 percent more than other workers -- and the pay gap is growing. Also, IT industries are achieving extraordinary productivity gains. From 1990 to 1997, IT-producing industries increased their
value-added per-worker (measured on a Gross Product Originating basis) at an annual rate of 10.4 percent, compared to the national average of
1.4 percent.
In his remarks, Gore also announced that the United States will partner with 10 developing countries for the "Internet for Economic Development," an initiative designed to increase Internet access and use in developing countries. Those countries are Guatemala, Jamaica, Bulgaria, Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Guinea, Uganda, South Africa and Mozambique. The World Bank will be an active partner this initiative.
Specifically, the initiative will seek to provide regulatory and technical advice and training to assist countries in creating an attractive, pro-competitive environment where the Internet can flourish, provide e-commerce training to local regulators, entrepreneurs, and artisans and foster the deployment of specific Internet applications such as micro-e-commerce, telemedicine, distance education and improved
access to government services.
The U.S. encourages other interested countries to join in this initiative. The World Trade Organization, on June 25, held a special session addressing sources and needs of telecommunications technical assistance. This meeting was initiated by the U.S. in support of developing other countries' efforts to reform regulations in order to promote private investment in telecommunications and e-commerce.
In addition, the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI), a non-profit organization, has committed to giving priority to applicants from these countries to participate in its tuition-free
industry/government training courses and inviting people from these countries to attend special sessions focusing on e-commerce policy issues.