Dr Brian Anderson, the CEO and President of National ICT Australia, the winner of the ICT Centre of Excellence (ICT CoE) tender, outlined its strategy to a packed auditorium at the Smart Internet Technology CRC Conference.
The aim of the ICT CoE is to build a critical mass of ICT research capacity in Australia. The Centre plans to have a series of research nodes, and believes that 100 researchers are enough for a node to reach critical mass. Each node will have dedicated SME liaison staff to assist Australian businesses move from idea to business plan to commercialisation.
The plan is to help create and commercialise start-up companies in the ICT industry, and Anderson claims that company creation and SME interaction will deliver more benefit to Australia than multinational interaction.
"Only two percent of Australian SMEs export, whereas in Europe it's typically 14 percent," said Anderson. "Our high tech exports are way down compared with other OECD countries. That has been their major source of growth, and we have missed out on that. Our dollar has gone down so much because our goods and services, our assets, are less and less attractive to global investors." He said the decline in the dollar outweighed the recent growth in our GDP.
The Federal Government has pledged AU$129.5 million over five years, starting at AU$4.5 million for 2001/2002 and increasing to AU$48 million in 2005/2006. The initial funding will come through this week.
In addition, the members of the winning consortium will contribute around AU$96 million in cash and in-kind over the five years, and the NSW and ACT Governments will each contribute AU$20 million.
The Centre is not alone in trying to assist the export efforts of Australian SMEs. Austrade recently announced the ten winners of its Euro High Tech Tour Competition, who will receive a free week in Europe to promote their products to that market.
Austrade has also joined with the Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (AEEMA) to create TradeStart, which will help ICT companies break into overseas markets. The Federal Government has committed AU$21.5 million over four years to the project.
