Editor's brief

IN BOTH the four-year National Recovery plan and the Budget, the Government has purportedly affirmed its commitment to creating an innovative smart economy that will nurture start-ups and support investment. Leading opposition parties have indicated that they hold a similar view.

Yet there is, understandably, public cynicism when it comes to political promises and assurances these days – from whatever side. Most people find it hard to focus on grand plans for the future when the here and now seems so bleak.

When it comes to creating an environment for innovative business success, the recent Budget could hardly be described as a beacon of hope in this regard, with its priority on short-term swingeing cuts.

If our triad of international financial masters want to ensure a timely return on loans, it will not just be through cuts, but through a concerted restructuring of our economic model – focusing on working alongside multinationals here, as well as nurturing indigenous innovative companies.

Next year brings yet more enormous challenges, not least for the firms who struggled through the last two years by covering costs with whatever capital savings remained in the business, in the hope – fed in part by errant promises of recovery from politicians and others in the recent past – that things would start to get better within 12 to 18 months. They are now facing into another year of turmoil, no doubt wondering if the end really is in sight, even by 2014.

The fear is that if there is another major upheaval internationally – be it the bursting of a Chinese credit bubble or the failure of US economic recovery to take hold – then the challenges may make the recovery plan yet another tome of wishful thinking and wasted time.

We have a chance to review and overhaul our social and economic model during this catharsis, but when it comes to creating an environment for innovation, much of the work is already done, courtesy of the Innovation Taskforce and a host of other reports. In this area at least, it’s time to stop talking, dissecting and analysing – and start doing.