Around the world, governments are no longer treating critical technologies as long-term research interests. They are competing directly to adopt and embed them at scale, knowing that the jurisdictions that move fastest in deployment secure the greatest share of talent, investment and influence. Competition for leadership in critical technology is intensifying. Nations and states that are early adopters are capturing disproportionate benefits, including attracting high-value firms to establish private capital and skilled workers. By contrast, jurisdictions that remain focused only on pure research risk becoming consumers of technologies developed and applied elsewhere.
This is borne out by jurisdictions such as Singapore, Germany, and South Korea, which have prioritised rapid adoption of technology and consistently outperform their peers in terms of economic uplift. Research by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) has shown that “digital-first” economies, that embed technologies deeply into their industrial base, achieve above-average gains in productivity and growth.
