Written by Will Saunders and published by Digital Leaders
In digital terms, Europe is a divided continent. While Western European exports of information and communications technology (ICT) are a relatively buoyant 4.4%, the rest of the continent manages less than a quarter of that. Russia and Turkey’s ICT exports in 2017 were 0.3% of GDP1.
If ever there was a case for not hitching your wagon to a continent’s digital economy, this is it.
As Immerse UK’s recent Immersive economy report highlights our nascent immersive businesses in the UK are very export friendly & Brexit gives the UK an opportunity to seek new digital partners, countries as innovative and energised as our own with, crucially, a pressing need to harness new technology. Countries like India.
India’s immersive economy may be small at present, but it’s growing fast. I recently represented BIMA on an Innovate UK trade mission that took in Hyderabad, Banagalore & Mumbai. I saw an emphasis on enterprise and B2B applications of, for example, VR in medical care and education. Why does India feel the need to place a greater focus on such technologies than Europe? “Frankly,” I was told “because we have bigger problems than you.” In Hyderabad the government have made a commitment for clean drinking water in every household. At the same time that they lay the drains they’ve decided to lay internet fibre as well.