Khoo emphasised that long-term solutions for economic growth relies on ICT development and adoption, which could drive an economy towards transformative growth, enhance industry efficiency and output, and offer society greater access to opportunities for improving the quality of life.

He said: "As an industry, ICT has the potential to build lucrative businesses and create new jobs. It is essential to the development of a knowledge economy that offers value-added products and services to the world."

Noting that ICT acts as "an enabler of other industries", Khoo reminded the audience of the capability of ICT to raise productivity and efficiency in all economic sectors. "Industries that leverage ICT tend to achieve much higher growth rates than those that don't," he stressed.

The WITSA chairman explained that ICT as a development stimulus "transforms our lives for the better through such ways as extending accessibility to education, revolutionising community networking, enhancing healthcare services, improving public safety, extending opportunity distribution, promoting culture and leisure and other components of the quality of life."

ICT can help users seize the short-term opportunities arising from arbitrage and medium-term ones through aggregation and the reduction of imbalances, Khoo also said.