The government has spent a lot of money on education, making information technology a key component of the school curriculum and producing large numbers of technical graduates. Finnish companies have invested heavily in research and development. High-technology as a percentage of Finnish GNP has increased fivefold in ten years. New Zealand has many of the prerequisites needed for the Information Age, such as a good technological infrastructure and a culture of innovation. Already 40 per cent of households have a computer.
Internet usage is very high.
While traditional statistics do not enable us to say how much of New Zealand's GDP is created by knowledge, the IT sector, a critical foundation for utilising knowledge, accounts for 7 per cent. If New Zealanders do not seize the opportunities provided by the knowledge economy, we will survive only as an amusement park and holiday land for the citizens of more successful developed economies.