CANARIE wants to play key role in reviving fortunes of the Canadian ICT sector

CANARIE Inc is positioning itself as a critical tool for turning around Canada's flagging information and communications technology (ICT) sector with the introduction of an innovation test bed allowing for companies to trial new products and services essential for improving ICT competitiveness.

At last week's Canadian Science Policy Conference in Montreal, interim CANARIE president Jim Roche outlined the troubling state of the broad Canadian ICT sector and the role his organization can play. It is seeking funding renewal in about 18 months.

Roche said the proposed new elements of a CANARIE mandate for 2012-2017 closely align with the federal Digital Economy Strategy now in development and promises to be extremely important to the sector's revival and future success (R$, July 30/10). He noted that the current state of ICT in Canada is cause for concern.

"ICT is doing very poorly," said Roche, with few large domestic firms and a declining share of gross domestic product. Canada's position by this measure is below the OECD average with Canada's ranking falling from 14th out of 23 countries.

The R&D intensity of the Canadian ICT sector is 5.4% compared to 7.4% in the US. Between 1997 and 2008, Canada's share of OECD ICT exports shrunk from 2.8% to 1.9%, a 50% drop in 11 years. Venture capital investments have sunk to a 14-year low.

On the skills front, Canada is lagging with a threefold decline in the number of ICT professionals immigrating to Canada. There has also been a significant drop in IT enrollment at Canadian universities.

"What can CANARIE do? The innovation test bed," said Roche. "It'' one element but an extremely important one. It's catalytic and aligns with the digital ICT strategy."

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