The last year has seen the economies of the western industrialised nations falter then fall to their knees. The woes of the credit crunch with its foundations in the US sub-prime market only exposed the reality of far too much debt at corporate and individual level which has left much of the former economic powers facing deep recession with attendant issues.

Business issues have long faced these old economies as they have seen their manufacturing centres eroded to minimal levels by the cheap labour driven factories of Asia and the Near East. The long held belief by the governments of the western nations has been that the new economies of advanced technologies including the internet and knowledge centric business were their domains and coupled with the on-going growth of the financial services sector would provide growth for decades to come.

The unfortunate reality is that the new economic powers have rapidly engaged these technology centric markets as well, with a highly educated workforce (often educated in the west) and lower cost bases than we can provide. As to the financial services, we are now seeing their power fading significantly.

Therefore, the question for our economies is what next? What will be the basis for the next stage of economic growth that we need to underpin our societies.