The importance of the ICT ecosystem

Contribution of the ICT sector

The ICT (information and communications technologies) sector plays a crucial role in the modern economy and society. The ICT sector includes computer hardware and software, telecommunications, consumer electronics, and Internet-based contents, applications and services.

From a long-run historical perspective, it is clusters of new technologies that have driven economic and social growth and change. New technologies drive growth and change by creating new opportunities for consumption and investment. The ICT cluster of technologies emerged around the time of the Second World War and since then they have been the most important driver of global economic and social growth and change. Earlier clusters were based on textile machinery in the late 1700s, the steam engine (including railways and steam ships) in the early 1800s; electricity and steel in the late 1800s; and the internal combustion engine, oil and petrochemicals in the early 1900s.

In most industrialised countries the ICT sector is one of the largest in the economy, accounting for around 10 per cent of GDP. However, its contribution to economic growth is even more important than this. According to the OECD up to some 20 per cent of all economic growth is attributable to the ICT sector. The same source reports that about one-third of all business research and development (R&D) is done by the sector (Fransman 2009).

Significantly, the ICT sector provides one of the most important and ubiquitous infrastructures of the modern economy and society, the infrastructure that facilitates information processing and storage and communications.