Devolution will drive e-commerce revolution, says Brown
The government's devolution programme will help put Britain at the forefront of the e-commerce revolution, chancellor Gordon Brown has pledged.
Chairing the first Joint Ministerial Committee on the Knowledge Economy, and also the first to be held outside London, Brown said: ‘Today we are agreeing measures which will help us rise to challenge of e-commerce. ‘By 2002 every school to be linked to the Internet. 1,000 computer learning centres throughout the country. 200,000 computers loaned to families who need them. New incentives for small businesses to join the e-commerce revolution. ‘Amid the day to day news about devolution, it is important not to lose sight of the longer view. ‘The case for devolution starts from the over-centralised, remote and insensitive machinery of government that we inherited in 1997. ‘The old uniform and rigid state – with everything directed from London – denied expression to our regions and nations. So devolution does not create new identities within Britain but simply gives democratic expression to existing identities.’Accountancy Age Feature: E-Business – Making the business world a smaller place