ICT to drive growth to 2026: Coonan

Federal ICT minister Helen Coonan has flagged ICT as the predominant productivity driver over the next 20 years.

Forecasting productivity growth: 2004 to 2024, a new report suggesting Australia will continue to benefit from technological momentum in ICT, was released today by the minister.

The report also found that labour productivity growth would be strong in sectors which were heavy users of ICT technologies such as telecommunications, manufacturing, finance and trade.

“Advances in ICT technologies in the next 20 years will mostly be in ‘ubiquitous' computing and communications, the ones pervading economic life,” Coonan said in a statement.

Biotechnology and nanotechnology stood to make a significant contribution to productivity growth while ICT would be used more in manufacturing, mining, construction, agricultural and transport equipment, to increase machine ‘intelligence' and reduce labour requirements, the report said.

“With Australia facing emerging economic challenges, the continuing rapid advances in ICT and its many applications will help to sustain and improve living standards and continue to make a valuable economic contribution,” Coonan said.

The report can be found at www.dcita.gov.au/ie.