Cowen appoints economy taskforce

[ArtyQueing]

I'm starting this spin about Smart Economy, Knowledge Economy, Green Jobs and Green New Deal really tiresome. No doubt other countries are similarly positioning themselves but I wonder is this economic policy based on hackneyed quango reports full of anodyne recommendations and platitudes rather than a serious appraisal of the endemic strengths in Irish people. For example, if people are unwilling to do Science and Maths courses in college, as they appear to be, where is this labour pool coming from? Maybe we are just better at so-called primary or seconday industries such as construction, manufacturing, agriculture and tourism. If someone is not working in a lab or venture capital start-up in 10 years time, will they be excluded from this 'smart economy'? Is the corollary that they are part of an 'unsmart economy'?

This shows that you ahve no idea of the impact that a samrt ecenomy would have. take a nurse on local calls to the home bound, she would be able to upfdate their mediacl records via the TV for instance. This would revolutionaise us all.

At the minute in Norway for example the usage of cheques have disappeared as each invoice has a bar code which is scanned into the accpounts, when the account is paid the bank is updated as the barcode had the details. The opportuinities are endless. Second only to the cynism on this thread

[Oppenheimer]

I have seen some task forces work well in the past - doesn't actually cost too much as the main body is made up of people already employed elsewhere so it is NOT a quango - it is probably the progenitor of some in the past. What worries me more is the makeup of this....

senior academics and bosses at the likes of Intel, HP, Cisco, KPMG and Johnson & Johnson.

There is a list on the Department of the Taoiseach as well and what is striking is the complete lack of indigenous small business owners (Chris Horn is probably the most known) and entrepreneurs so the report they produce is likely to dance the merry jig of the academics and MNCs - that will be a disgrace.

[aidanodr]

Hi Lads,

And so - THE SMART ECONOMY.

What is this? Define it? Actually GOOGLE it and you will find it is a specific Irish thing, no reference to the SMART ECONOMY in other countries - at least I could not find same. ( except this - http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/ )

So - all of a sudden the 400k plus unemployed miraculously become hi value tech employees? How about all those unemployed in their 40's, 50's and so on - are they to be included in the smart economy? OR chucked on the labour scrap heap?

Is this a plan for those under 25 either in 3rd level or on the way too?

Surely being a Smart Economy worker might not suit a sizeable amount of the current labour force OR any future work force, not everyone is wired this way OR interested. In fact will we have a two tear workforce - SMARTERS and then the rest servicing these people?

To date - anyone of note that I have asked all the above of has chosen to Flanel their way out of an answer ..

Aidan

[aidanodr]

AND,

Just by chucking in faster fibre broadband ( 80 mbps or more as is Japan ) isnt going to all of a sudden make people smarter. Ok, it will be a communication infrastructure, but again one has to get people thinking of usage, changing work practices, coding cloud apps ..

My difficulty with some of this is EVEN NOW trying to get firms and workers to adopt the forward thinking use of the net - the lack of IT knowledge and Interest even in the 20 something employee is sometimes alarming. Move onto company owners and management - serious dose of conservatism and "No one got fired for buying IBM/HP" mentality reigns.

Implementing a Smart Economy here may be a huge up hill battle unless mindsets are changed drastically ..

Aidan

[Jock_the_Waster]

This shows that you ahve no idea of the impact that a samrt ecenomy would have. take a nurse on local calls to the home bound, she would be able to upfdate their mediacl records via the TV for instance. This would revolutionaise us all.

At the minute in Norway for example the usage of cheques have disappeared as each invoice has a bar code which is scanned into the accpounts, when the account is paid the bank is updated as the barcode had the details. The opportuinities are endless. Second only to the cynism on this thread

lmao

from the clowns that brought us:

e-voting
PPARS
PULSE
The Digital Hub

lol, pardon our cynicism !

(and still not nationally available BB in 2009)

lol, the trams that dont connect !

these people will be the Architects of our 'smart' economy???

sell your stupidity elsewhere, we are all full up in Ireland

[Oppenheimer]

Hi Lads,

And so - THE SMART ECONOMY.

What is this? Define it? Actually GOOGLE it and you will find it is a specific Irish thing, no reference to the SMART ECONOMY in other countries - at least I could not find same.

So - all of a sudden the 400k plus unemployed miraculously become hi value tech employees? How about all those unemployed in their 40's, 50's and so on - are they to be included in the smart economy? OR chucked on the labour scrap heap?

Is this a plan for those under 25 either in 3rd level or on the way too?

Surely being a Smart Economy worker might not suit a sizeable amount of the current labour force OR any future work force, not everyone is wired this way OR interested. In fact will we have a two tear workforce - SMARTERS and then the rest servicing these people?

To date - anyone of note that I have asked all the above of has chosen to Flanel their way out of an answer ..

Aidan

I think you are mixing things up for yourself. A Smart Economy is not an implicit assumption that people, in general, have to be smarter, after all, we do have a high degree of third level education in this country on a comparative basis with others. Instead think that a Smart Economy is a design for the economy as an entity that tends to more self sustaining properties. For instance, it is not self sustaining to rely on imported companies to form the basis of the economy in the long term, i.e., it is not Smart. It is equally not Smart to have an over-reliance on one sector, primary, secondary or tertiary because an external shock to the one which is over relied upon will result in knock on effects to the other industries.

I believe a Smart Economy is one in which indigenous business, of all scales, but particularly of a small scale are promoted AND all types, i.e., the butcher, the baker, etc., are all as equally important as the software designers or engineering firms. What arises from this is firstly, a failure in one small company does not have as big an impact as a large failure, e.g., Dell or as a domestic example, Elan. With a balance across the economy of many businesses at different levels of technological prowess you also insulate, to some degree the failure of the large companies, i.e., we will always have the large companies but their number is considered in terms of the likely impact of their failure, or at least there is a Smart strategy in place to understand the risks that could arise to the economy as a whole should they fail.

So I don't apply the idea of Smart Economy to individuals getting smarter, but to our society and governance becoming smarter at designing the economy better.

[aidanodr]

This shows that you ahve no idea of the impact that a samrt ecenomy would have. take a nurse on local calls to the home bound, she would be able to upfdate their mediacl records via the TV for instance. This would revolutionaise us all ...

The opportuinities are endless. Second only to the cynism on this thread

So you really think the current public services and government are capable of this JOINED UP THINKING? I do not share your optimism, though if possible it would be wonderful.

Right now so many systems in the public service are disconnected. Of note in the Social Welfare system, the Car tax offices and Ennis, the garda systems. Im sure others could furnish further examples.

Again I agree - yes the opportunities are endless if implementation is not hampered by bad antiquated work practices and vested political interests!

Aidan

[Fr. Hank Tree]

Listened to the news at one podcast
RTÉ.ie Media Player: Cowen appoints economy taskforce

Conor Lenihan actually says (paraphrase) "we'd have had to upgrade to the smart economy anyway even if a recession had not kicked-in".

Then why are ye only starting now? You see the prudent, proactive and sensible government would have said a few years ago "lads, our export industry is going into decline, we'd better take steps to ameliorate the situation".

But these guys, no. They're lazy and short-sighted and then insult us with this guff about how they're thinking ahead when this stuff should have been done years ago. It's like when Brian Cowen talks about restoring our competitiveness as if that's some brave iniative to be lauded; we shouldn't have been lost our competitiveness in the first place FFS. After ignoring warnings for years he now pretends he was the first person to come up with it.

[aidanodr]

I think you are mixing things up for yourself. A Smart Economy is not an implicit assumption that people, in general, have to be smarter ....

So I don't apply the idea of Smart Economy to individuals getting smarter, but to our society and governance becoming smarter at designing the economy better.

Thank you Oppenheimer,

As I said I find it interesting to read what people feel the SMART ECONOMY is.

To that end have a look here:

'Smart economy' plan gambles with taxpayers' money - The Irish Times - Mon, May 25, 2009

"The Government’s recovery plan is wrong to rely too much on science and technology innovation, writes EOIN O'LEARY

THE GOVERNMENT’S current recovery plan is to build a “smart economy” based on innovation. Is the Government up to the challenge of leading such an economy?

One would imagine that a “smart government” would be one that takes decisions based on objective research into the pros and cons of intervention, that learns quickly from its mistakes and that backs smart people who are prepared to show leadership.

So what kind of Government do we have and what are the chances of it delivering on the smart economy promises?"

AND

"The “smart economy” plan is based on the commercialisation of science and technology innovation from our universities.

“Innovation by invitation” is now seemingly the order of the day. The evidence has been growing that this is nothing but a huge gamble with taxpayers’ money."

AND

"The Government seems to have little faith in the ingenuity of the Irish population to find their way out of this crisis."

So as you can see Eoin here has a different definition of Smart Economy - "science and technology innovation .. a “smart economy” based on innovation". This I think was more the angle I was coming from.

So it seems the Smart Economy means different things to different people?

Though toward the end of this article Eoin sort of dovetails with what you mention:

"These reforms would almost certainly mean smaller central government with the likely emergence of stronger local government, which supports rather than controls and which only intervenes after careful analysis of costs and benefits. In short, it would mean a smart government for a smart people."

Aidan

[todaytonight]

Ok, help me out here.
We've been hearing the government talking about what they have been doing about the "Smart Economy" for over a year now. They even launched it over 6 months ago:
Speech by Cowen himself in late 2008: RTÉ News: Building Ireland's Smart Economy

So now are they telling us 1. that they weren't really serious about it then and now need a taskforce to help point them in the right direction? or 2. that they knew exactly what they were doing but it wasn't urgent enough to appoint a taskforce until now?
I'm confused Mr Cowen!