Exec Touts Role IT Is Playing To Help Economy
April 22, 2010
| 2:58 PM
Information Technology Industry Council CEO and President Dean Garfield is touting information technology as one of the key drivers helping to pull the country out of the current economic downturn.
In a column Thursday in the Huffington Post, Garfield pointed to recent positive earnings reports from such companies as AMD, Apple, eBay, Google and IBM as evidence of the industry's "lead role in laying the foundation for a new pro-growth economy."
He noted that the IT industry has been a major source of job creation in recent years. Garfield said a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation found between 1999 and 2008, more than 688,000 new information and communications technology jobs were created. "History shows us that high-tech is a proven economic catalyst," he said, noting the contributions the personal computer, the Internet and new technologies such as social media have made to U.S. economic growth in the last 30 years.
Of course, he said the industry could be doing even better if policymakers took action on some key issues including making the research and development tax credit permanent, passing comprehensive immigration legislation that would make it easier for high-skilled workers and foreign students with advanced to degrees from U.S. universities to stay in the country permanently, and push to improve science, technology, education and math education.
"If this week's earnings reports from industry bellwethers are any indication, our economy is set to emerge from the recent downturn stronger, more efficient and more competitive," Garfield wrote. "But in many respects, the major policies we have in ... place in the areas that matter most to economic growth -- education, immigration, trade, taxes -- are the same policies we had in place for the last 50 years."
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