Edited by Tony Pilch and Hugo Foxwood
Published 2003 (ISBN 1 902488 53 9) Price £19.95
This series of three seminars looked at three key aspects of the Competitiveness agenda – ‘Measures to combat anti-competitiveness’, ‘How ICT can help’ and ‘Productive Policies’. In the first seminar, after an introduction by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Irwin Stelzer from the Hudson Institute, spoke of the benefits of a strong competition policy framework and argued that successful competition policy is a social as well as economic tool. Clare Spottiswoode then followed by talking of the lessons of trying to generate competitive forces within monopolies and utilities, as well as highlighting the conditions for competition. The second seminar started with a presentation by the Minister for E-Commerce, Douglas Alexander MP, who discussed the relationship between e-commerce and competitiveness and the challenges for the UK Government in harnessing technology to meet key objectives, like increased productivity. Bill Thomas (Managing Director UK & Ireland, EDS) then spoke about how ICT can help contribute to the competitiveness of the economy for both the public and private sector and gave examples of how technology can be used to address a whole series of issues including welfare reform and the justice system. The final seminar focused on ‘Productive Policies’, with Professor Jonathan Haskel (Queen Mary) speaking of the links between the productivity and social justice agenda and the policy implications that arise. Robert Peston (City Editor, The Sunday Telegraph), then set out the virtues of a pro-competition policy and argued that the role of Government in the modern economy was to equip individuals to cope with an increasingly competitive economic environment.