Building Ireland's Smart Economy
In December 2008 the Irish Government produced ‘Building Ireland’s Smart Economy: a Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal’, its strategy for medium-term economic recovery based around the concept of the Smart Economy.
A Summary of Progress and Future Priorities produced in March 2010 is available here.
A Smart Economy combines the successful elements of the enterprise economy and the innovation or ‘ideas’ economy, while promoting a high-quality environment, improving energy security and promoting social cohesion.
It recognises the interdependence of four types of capital accumulation:
- human or knowledge capital
- physical capital
- natural or environmental capital
- social capital
These forms of capital are mutually reinforcing and drive improvements in productivity per capita, the ultimate source of economic development.
Since the publication of the Framework, there have been significant developments in the global and Irish economies, and the Government has responded with an unprecedented series of measures during 2009.
This includes further elaboration of the policy direction set by the Framework in areas such as Technology Actions to Support the Smart Economy (July 2009), the Global Irish Economic Forum (September 2009), the report on Developing the Green Economy in Ireland (December 2009), and the Report of the Innovation Taskforce (March 2010).
A Progress Report covering the period to March 2010 is available here.
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