If we're going to deal with the issue of poverty we know the best antidote is work, jobs for every citizen. Perhaps what economic theorists are starting to realize is that economic growth these days is not only about access to capital, it's not only about having natural resources, having a good manufacturing and service sector base. It's not only about getting the fiscal parameters right, managing inflation, having a good debt to GDP ratio and getting the dollar where it's supposed to be. It is really about having a highly talented functional labour force. The new economy is about ideas.
Ideas come from people.
Those ideas have to be applied. But it's all the way right through the labour market. Whether it's a server in a restaurant managing new technologies or millwrights on the shop floor. Many of you know that I come from a background in human resources. Looking at the transitions in the last couple of decades and how we work together, moving away from the assembly line, you know with process controls and cell management and cross-training, individuals required to lead groups and have the soft skills that build teamwork, that build functioning, healthy work environments.