More funding needed to boost digital economy growth

By Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 14 July 2009 10:29

IT Industry - Market

The foundations for a strong digital economy in Australia are already in place, according to the Australian Computer Society, but it has urged the federal government to allocate more funds in future budgets to facilitate further growth in the technology sector.

Welcoming the government’s Digital Economy Future Directions paper, ACS chairman, Kumar Parakala, said today the paper illustrated that the foundations were already in place for a strong digital economy sector within Australia, but he wanted to see the “prioritization of initiatives” which would help to accelerate the development of the sector as a leading growth area for Australia.

And, Parakala promised that in a few weeks time the ACS would release the trade update for the ICT area which “will provide further evidence that even in its infancy, the digital and information economy is already one of Australia’s strongest growth areas.”

“With continued focus and support, we believe the digital economy holds the potential to Australia’s future economic success. Unlike other traditional sectors of the economy, with the right kind of (investment) this area has no barriers or ceilings to its growth, and is not dependent on finite resources.”

“However, it does require appropriate capital to be provided to help with seed funding for growth sectors within this economy.  We acknowledge the existing Government support in this area, and would hope to see this addressed in a more holistic way in future budgets.”

Parakala looked forward to continued discussions on digital economy initiatives with the Minister for Broadband, Communications & Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, and said the ACS would focus its efforts around supporting the government and industry to develop three key areas within the digital economy – e-security, e-health and e-learning.