CD科学技术统计（英文版）.pdf8

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector
has become a key element in the new economy. In 2000,
3.4 % of the EU workers were employed in ICT sector,
whereas the value added they generated amounted to 4.5 %
of the EU’s GDP (Table 1). At the national level, the highest
proportion of employment accounted for by the ICT sector was
retained by Sweden (6.4 %), whereas value added as a % of
GDP was highest in Finland (9.1 %).
The growing importance of the ICT sector is reflected in the
increasing number of patent applications to the EPO
(Figure 2) as well as its rising share in total patents. From
1991 to 2001 in the EU, the percentage of ICT patent
applications to the EPO more than doubled from 6.8 % to
15.5 % (Figure 1).
In terms of annual average growth rates, ratios for applications
in the ICT sector are well above those of patents overall not
only for EU Member States but also for the US and Japan
(Table 2). For the 1996-2001 period, the annual average
growth rates of patent applications to the EPO in the ICT
sector were 23.4 % for the EU, 17.7 % for Japan and 22.0 %
for the US.
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