Intel's CEO Craig Barrett used his keynote address in Sydney today to ram home the message that he believes Australia spends too little on IT research and development.
While Barrett admitted that Australia had a very high penetration rate in terms of PCs and Internet use, he argued that the country had to spend more on R&D to because it was an investment in the future.
He said that Intel outspends Australia on R&D. "Clearly IT investment is critical," Barrett said.
Barrett also emphasised broadband, talking up the importance of it in terms of Internet and rich content which were dependent on the bandwidth capabilities broadband provided.
"From an infrastructure standpoint [it's] one of the biggest challenges Australia has at the moment," Barrett said.
Like other visiting technology proponents, Barrett also spoke of the build out of the Internet. In a statement relating to this morning's presentation Barrett said that over the next several years leading economies would rely on the Internet more heavily.
"Countries and businesses that innovate with Internet technologies will benefit from the productivity and efficiency that this merging of computing and communication delivers," he said.
Despite the huge investment in IT over the last few decades, computers have brought little in productivity improvments for office workers.
Whilst I'm sure broadband can deliver wonderful things to the home, I'm not sure the benefits for business are so great. Where's the ROI? Where's the business case? JIT manufacturing has been using EDI for many years to greatly reduce manufacturing costs, where's the equivalent for business?