Thursday,9th March 2006, The ACS (Australian Computer Society) today welcomed the findings of two reports released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics¹ which highlight the significance of the ICT sector’s contribution to the nation’s economy – and renewed its call for the Government to make ICT a national priority.

According to the ABS report, in 2002-03:

• ICT made a greater contribution to the economy than agriculture, forestry and fishing, defence and education
• ICT accounted for 4.6 per cent of GDP.  
• In 2002-03, ICT accounted for 13.8 per cent of total investment in Australia

ACS CEO, Dennis Furini, applauded the Government for commissioning the ground- breaking research; the first of its kind worldwide.  He also said the ABS data might understate the true total employment in the ICT Sector.²

“For the Australian economy to strengthen, we need to know what industries have the potential to drive growth,” said Mr Furini.  “Research of this nature is essential to ensure the right industries are getting the necessary support.

“The ABS reports provide evidence of something we have long maintained - that ICT is a vital part of the economy - and it requires equitable levels of support to its industry counterparts,” he said. “I’m now calling for ICT groups to work with state and federal governments to develop a 10 year plan for the continued growth and development of the industry.”

Mr Furini suggested that, as part of this plan, resources be directed towards developing Australia’s onshoring potential, focusing on the next wave of “knowledge based” services.

“This report shows that ICT provides Australian companies with significant returns on their investment. It is time the ICT sector and the State and Federal Governments work together to promote Australia as regional hub for global technology investments,” he said.

The ACS Onshoring Policy, released in September last year, states that global outsourcing of high end analytics work could be worth up to A$16 billion.  Australia’s highly skilled and productive, but medium cost, workforce makes it an ideal destination to attract foreign investments of this kind.

The policy identifies four analytic areas suitable for onshoring to Australia over the next three to five years: financial services; strategic business intelligence and research; risk and quality management; as well as research and development.

The ACS looks forward to the report from a working group established at last year’s ministerial online Council - concerning a new collaborative approach by Federal and State governments for a more effective strategy to promote Australia’s ICT capability internationally.

-ends-

Further information: Fleur Brown (02) 9270 0240 or mobile: 0419 270 863.

¹Australian Bureau of Statistics, Estimating Aggregate Productivity Growth for Australia: The Role of Information and Communications Technology and ICT, see www.dcita.gov.au/ie The research released by the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA), specifically analyses the contribution of ICT to the Australian economy and confirms the long held position of the ACS, that ICT underpins productivity in all other sectors of the Australian economy.