The minister delivered the warning during presentation last night in Wellington of his Honorary Fellowship to the New Zealand Computer Society.
Cunliffe joins 19 other ICT luminaries awarded the honour, which was made in recognition of his "significant" contribution to the industry.
In delivering the Fellowship, NZCS president Don Robertson told the minister he had "displayed a dogged determination to work with the sector to achieve results" and had earned the respect of many in the ICT profession, regardless of political affiliation, through his understanding of both the "big picture" and the details of the issues the ICT sector faces.
Accepting the Fellowship, Cunliffe told the audience he was humbled by the award: "Nothing like this has happened to me before and I'm quite touched." But he added that his achievements were a team effort and he made special mention of key Ministry of Economic Development staff.
However, he also reminded the audience that
80 per cent of the world's population is still without access to the internet
and that without a concerted approach in developing New Zealand's ICT skills, further
barriers or "layers" could develop here in the divide of digital ‘haves' and ‘have-nots'.
To prevent this, he said that all New Zealanders need skills for the effective
application of ICT systems and devices. New Zealand also needs to develop the
skills of the ICT practitioner so they can research, develop, design, manage,
produce and support the nation's ICT systems.
Finally, ebusiness skills need to be promoted, he said, in order to exploit the opportunities provided by ICT - especially of the internet - to ensure more efficient and effective ways of conducting business and to establish new businesses.
Key to the problem is overcoming the ICT skills shortage, he said, and to do that New Zealand needs to have high-speed broadband on a par with anywhere in the world.
"This is a country where you can have for free what others pay millions of dollars to have.
"If we get the broadband," he said, "we will attract the world's best."
