Vision

The growing application of IT and telecommunications in the coming years will show a significant resemblance with the development of companies, the economy and society. IT will partly determine and partly support the changes. Computer networks will radically change communication between people and companies. They will also change the control of tasks, data distribution and knowledge acquisition. This will lead to completely new and flexible business organisations. Drastic changes in businesses and partnerships will have far-reaching consequences for the entire economy.

IT and telecommunications will accelerate and simplify the production and transport of immaterial products. New forms of business involving data, knowledge and communication will result in a Information Revolution. Computer networks will lift the current businesses in the agricultural and industrial sectors up to a higher level. Fast communication between people, accurate control and a better co-ordination of tasks will enable companies to offer products and services that are exclusive and of a better quality. We have a joint responsibility to ensure that these developments are accompanied by a growth of prosperity and that the well-being of all people is served.

Since a number of barriers have to be overcome and such large numbers of people are involved, the growth of the application of IT and telecommunications will require a great deal of time. On the other hand, large, new markets are opened up, so that the economy will continue to expand for a long time. To a certain extent we can compare the growth of IT and the accompanying social and economic changes to the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The Information Revolution will, however, bring about greater and more complex changes than the Industrial Revolution has. The first growing phase of the Information Revolution will therefore take at least thirty years.