Market demands will drive growth

It comes as no surprise that digital inclusion has major implications for economic growth ­ up to €85bn over five years, according to the latest estimates.

Business growth alone is highly significant. Online sales ­ both business and consumer ­ have shot up by a massive 29 per cent in the UK in the past 12 months. And if Domino’s Pizza’s record £1m-worth of weekly web sales are anything to go by, the Office of National Statistics’ latest £130bn figure is just the beginning.

But, as EU member state representatives at this week’s Lisbon meeting will know, there are no simple answers in a region that includes such stark diversity as central London and rural Poland.

Broadband infrastructure ­ with all that entails in terms of regulation, investment models and industry structures ­ is a vital consideration.

And minister for competitiveness Stephen Timms is well-judged in his attempts to focus the minds of UK industry on addressing bottlenecks in the rollout of next-generation fibre networks.

But while high-speed internet investment is more fit than most for the “build and they will come” philosophy, infrastructure on its own is not enough.

Ultimately progress will be down to the market ­ to service providers such as BSkyB and Virgin Media fighting over the customer (as they are increasingly doing), and to all types of company looking at their business and thinking about how the internet can help them do it better.