The global financial crisis has had little effect on Australia’s ICT trade with strong growth in imports and exports recorded during 2008, a new report commissioned by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) has found.
The Australian ICT Trade Update 2009 report found that Australia’s ICT exports grew to about $6.6 billion in 2008, up from about $5.8 billion in 2007.
ICT imports in 2008 grew to about $34 billion up from about $28 billion in 2007, resulting in a $5 billion growth in Australia’s ICT trade deficit to $28 billion in 2008, according to the report.
The largest ICT equipment import sources in 2008 were China, USA, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Germany, while the largest ICT services import sources were the USA, UK, India, Germany, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Australia’s ICT services exports, which include communication, computer & information, audiovisual & related, and software royalties & fees, were worth $3 billion in 2008, up from about $2.6 billion in 2007.
Australia’s locally produced ICT equipment exports, which include communications, computer, audiovisual, components, other ICT related products, and software, grew marginally from about $1.8 billion in 2007 to $1.9 billion in 2008.
The largest markets for Australian ICT equipment exports in 2008 were New Zealand, USA, China, Germany and Singapore, while the largest markets for ICT services were the USA, Hong Kong, UK, New Zealand, Singapore and Japan.
Despite Australia’s strong export growth and surpluses on trade in computer services, an immediate challenge could be seen developing in a marked slowing of risk-oriented seed and venture capital investment, the report found.
“Innovation is the key to recovery, so we must find ways to minimise the impact of the global financial crisis on innovation and, thereby, on the future competitiveness of local firms,” the report reads.
Commenting on this issue ACS chairman and president, Kumar Parakala, said Australia had not been as successful in producing, commercialising and marketing its ICT innovations in comparison to other OECD countries.
“Our businesses do not seem to be effectively tapping into global networks. An Austrade report found that only three per cent of our SMEs export their goods and services, suggesting that, given the right incentives and stimulus, our participation in the digital economy could significantly improve,” he said in a statement. “The result is that Australia is an increasingly strong user of other countries’ ICT innovations and a poor exporter of its own, a fact only too well highlighted by our growing ICT trade deficit.”
Parakala added that the drying up of capital had the potential to stifle growth of current and future productivity drivers, such as ICT enabled services and the digital economy.
“Maintaining levels of innovation is crucial to addressing the growing deficit and providing a platform for the development and exportation of ICT goods and services,” he said in a statement . “The challenge for Australian industry and policy makers is to capitalise on the opportunities within the environment sector, to strengthen Australia’s services offering and to accelerate the development of the digital economy - a leading growth area for Australia.”
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