Genomics will Transform Economy and Society
Enriquez stressed that countries in a knowledge economy need only a few thousand smart people. “You can build the richest country in the world on a Caribbean island by cherry-picking brains. You don’t have to move a bank account. You don’t have to move a building. All you have to move is brains. That’s a very different economy,” he said.
The difference in productivity between the richest people in the world and the poorest has risen to 427:1 in a knowledge economy from five-to-one in an agricultural society. Countries such as Luxembourg, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan educated their populations in the language of computer technology and have enjoyed extraordinary economic growth.