Australian ICT Fit for Global Economy?
Australian ICT Fit for Global Economy?
November 21, 2007: Three days out from Australia’s Federal Election, Gartner analysts have revealed some worrying trends regarding the country’s ICT position in an increasingly globalised economy.
Disagreeing slightly in their arguments but ultimately pitching the same line, distinguished analysts at Gartner Craig Baty and Partha Ivengar have given their position on the impact of globalisation on Australia’s ICT capabilities.
Ivengar, an analyst located in India, urged Australia to consider our current reliance on an unsustainable resources boom to instead position ICT as a means to generating a knowledge driven economy.
“How long can Australia continue to reply on the resources paradigm for growth?” asked Ivengar. “How much is resources actually attributing to innovation? Is that enough, after all it’s not an industry known for driving innovation.”
Noting the impressive, long-term uninterrupted growth in the country’s economy, Ivengar believes it’s not a matter of arguing that Australia’s ICT position has been affected by globalisation, but rather that it will be in the future.
“I use ‘will’ as the operative word. It’s hard to argue with the fact that Australia has had up to 30 quarters of uninterrupted growth,” says Ivengar. “The key point is where the globalisation paradigm is today, there are signs it will erode in the future.”
Ivengar suggests there are two factors in need of consideration to get ahead with ICT in a globalised economy. The first is through low-cost labour, and the second through a knowledge economy - an area Ivengar believes, Australia is simply not doing enough to protect.
“Low cost labour is obviously not Australia’s strength. But the issue is, do you have the ingredient for a knowledge driven economy? The answer is no,” he says.
Statistics like those provided by the World Economic Forum (WEF) support these comments. According to the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report, Australia has progressively declined in its position over the last few years. Ranked as the 10th leader in 2002, that figure dropped to 16th in 2006 and 19th in 2007.
A significant gap in the resource pool is also causing concern as the number of student enrolling in IT, science and related studies continues to decrease.
Meanwhile Craig Baty wasn’t so sure about the dire state of Australia’s ICT in the global economy. “ICT still accounts for around 4.6 percent of Australia’s GDP,” he said. “Australia is also an attractive place for the establishment of global operations.”
Baty was quick to point out that although Australia is suffering from an IT talent drought, Austrade figures indicate we’ve had a dramatic transformation into a services based industry, open source solutions are boosting operations and Australia’s ability to take existing IT and apply it to business purposes is significant.
Baty summed up the debate by addressing the impact of ICT on the current election campaigns. “All major parties have announced billions of dollars, IT has become one the three key issues to have been brought up,” he said.
“We now need to make sure whatever party is elected on Saturday continues with its IT promises, especially to put computers in our schools.”