A press release this morning from the office of Industry Minister Christian Paradis encapsulates some important data about Canada’s information and communications technology sector:
Canada is a leader in wireless telecommunications equipment, mobile and gaming software development, and business analytics. It is home to a quarter of North America’s fastest-growing wireless companies and six internationally competitive ICT regional clusters. In 2011, the sector comprised 33,500 firms that contributed $62.7 billion to our GDP (4.9 percent), had over $168 billion in revenues and employed more than 550,000 people, representing 3.2 percent of national employment. In 2011, the ICT sector performed 34 percent of all private sector R&D and, since 2002, has grown by 39 percent compared to the national average of 18 percent.
Catch that? A third of all of Canada’s private sector research and development is performed by 3.2% of national employment. Punching 10 times above its weight.
The sector has grown by more than double the national average.
The sector is contributing 50% more to the national GDP than its share of national employment.
The Industry Minister is heading to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to spread the word about investment opportunities Canada this week. Hopefully, he will mention that the leadership of Canada’s ICT sector will be gathering in Toronto in June at The 2013 Canadian Telecom Summit.
Keynote addresses from a dozen industry thought leaders. More than 60 industry leaders participating on panels exploring:
- The Revolution of TV: Content Anywhere & Anyhow;
- Building an Innovation Economy;
- Business Transformation;
- Devices, Screens & Apps;
- Network Transformation;
- Business Models in a Converged World;
- Consumer Issues;
- The Next Generation of Wireless; and
- CIO/CTO Roundtable; and
- the always popular Regulatory Blockbuster.
Early bird pricing for The Canadian Telecom Summit ends on Thursday. Have you registered yet?
One can only imagine how different things might be vis-a-vis the economy, innovation (not just in the ICT sector but in all sectors), exports, investment into Canada, jobs (well paying and full time) and employment (especially in the under 30 age group) in Canada if the feds had put the same emphasis and priority on finalizing a Canadian digital economy strategy as they did on the development and promotion of the oil, mining/commodity and other raw resource sectors which are significantly tied to the ebbs and flows of the economies of other nations, many of which have had digital economy strategies for years!!