Large English-speaking countries are leading the world in making the best use of high technology because they have focused on using it rather than just developing it, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says in a report.
The United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia all ranked higher than other OECD countries in a study of technology and job creation presented at the Paris-based agency's annual meeting, which ends today.
Finland's equally strong track record showed that the reasons behind the trend were not cultural, but rooted in the urgent need to adjust to globalization, said OECD economist Risaburo Nezu, the study's author.
Other OECD states, ranging from advanced economies such as France and Germany to new members including Poland and Korea, still have problems putting the fruits of their high-tech research policies into practice, the study found.
"In most OECD countries, current policies focus too much on developing new technologies in the small, high-tech part of the manufacturing sector and too little on fostering innovation and technology diffusion throughout the economy," the study said.
The English-speaking countries and Finland were forced by recession and changing markets to adjust earlier than other OECD states, Nezu said.
Nezu said computers and the Internet are now so widespread that broadening skills in using them are more important than developing new technologies.
Promising new fields such as telemedicine are hampered in many countries because privacy laws prevent patients' records from being sent over the Internet, he said.
Government bureaucracies also hinder efficient use of new technology by insisting that documents such as tax returns be submitted on paper rather than electronically.
The study said France, Germany, and Sweden lag behind because of rigidities in the public research sector and delays in adjusting financing and regulatory policies to the new, more entrepreneurial culture favored by the high-tech world.
