Internationally, we saw in 2001 and 2002 the weakest economic conditions in the major countries as a group for about twenty years. Several of them encountered recession - and recovery tended to be rather halting, which seems related to the unwinding of the share market bubble and associated excesses in the US and elsewhere.
At the same time, a knowledgeable citizenry is able to contribute more meaningfully to economic development and benefit better from the opportunities that development brings”.