Editorial: Quest for the crest is a job for all of us

New Zealand's economic efforts of the past 30 years can be charted by important public conferences: the National Development Conference of the Holyoake era and the Economic Summit conference of 1984. Can the conference that begins at Auckland University today, entitled Catching the Knowledge Wave, make the impact that those previous, well-publicised gatherings did? It deserves to.

This conference is grappling with exactly the same problem that the previous ones faced - New Zealand's inability to sustain a first-class living standard on Third World exports. Ever since the country lost the security of a colonial trading relationship with Britain, it has been growing steadily poorer by comparison with other developed economies. Those previous conferences were called to promote a new answer to the challenge. So is this one.

Each gathering has reflected the economic thinking of its age. The National Development Conference launched an era of sectoral planning in which industries were given border protection and other incentives to develop new exports or import substitutes. After 15 years, those industries seemed no more competitive, and the nation was no closer to paying its way. By 1984, countries such as Britain, the United States and Australia were embracing the idea that economies performed better when investment followed market signals rather than official designs.

Another 15 years have passed and the problem remains. Market signals have not directed enough investment into finding the new products and services that might earn the living standard New Zealanders expect. This conference meets in a milieu of scientific and technological advances sweeping the world. It is indeed a "wave", or rather successive waves of knowledge and applications that began with the microchip and have gathered pace since.

We are lucky to live in one of the great technological explosions of human history. The Royal Commission on Genetic Modification was not exaggerating in its report this week when it compared the present wave to the discoveries of fire, the wheel, the steam engine and electricity. The possibilities are immense and the good news for New Zealand is that this wave of technology has no regard for distance.

The disadvantage of our location has disappeared. New Zealanders can now do business with the world instantly, and can use their lonely position in the time zones to advantage, if they are clever. The conference will hear much about that. But if it is to be more than another talkfest, it will need to set some audacious practical goals.

Landmark conferences of the past were not memorable in themselves. They are remembered because they were followed by decisive action that the country understood in the light of the conference. The Herald, a co-sponsor of this conference, suggested in the course of its debate on New Zealand's future that we needed a national scorecard to plot our progress. Following that lead, McKinsey and Co and Ernst & Young have drawn up some difficult but reachable goals on each of the themes to be considered over the next three days. Broadly they are goals that would lift our ranking among the living standards of the rich world. Higher education is the key to most of them.

This conference was initiated by the University of Auckland. If its themes can be translated into action, they will require more investment in the best of this country's education and research. But the task requires more than money. Our scholars need to embrace an entrepreneurial culture, both in the applications of their research and the attitudes they encourage in the coming generation.

Nor is it a task for graduates alone. A clever economy depends on more than expertise in science, technology, commerce and marketing. Everybody contributes by doing his or her job as well as it can be done and earning the rewards of doing so. An economy is more than the sum of everyone's efforts but it needs those efforts.

With decisive leadership and a populace willing to learn, work hard and take risks, we can ride the crest of the knowledge wave.

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