There is a growing awareness amongst policy makers, international organizations, academia and think tanks, the business community and civil society, that the ability of society to acquire and use knowledge is increasingly becoming a key factor in determining the competitiveness of a country's economy. The importance of knowledge for development is likely to grow over the years to come and may well mean the difference between prosperity and poverty, both between but also within countries.
The ability to acquire and use knowledge includes, amongst others, access and ability to use information and communications technologies (ICT). This ability, however, also requires efficient education systems, new approaches towards innovations which bring together researchers and entrepreneurs, as well as an economic and institutional framework that support the use of knowledge to bring about new and competitive products and services. The future knowledge-based economy (in a broad sense, embracing, yet going beyond ICT) has been the subject of much discussion amongst international institutions such as the World Bank, the European Commission and the OECD. The practical implementation of concepts associated with the knowledge economy has also been part of the policy debate at the national level of all of the EU accession countries, and encompass important policy and public and private investment decisions.
Already, EU accession countries have had varying degrees of success in adopting elements of the knowledge economy. For instance, EU accession countries have agreed in the implementation of the common eEurope+ action plan (which also envisages cooperation with the international financial institutions) and developed their national e-strategies which address some key areas of the knowledge economy. We believe, however, that in most EU accession countries there remains scope for broadening the agenda for discussion and action within the realm of the knowledge economy.
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