Technology In Australia

The Australian Government encourages the development and introduction of innovative technologies in all spheres of life, beginning with IT sphere and ending with popular nanotechnologies. According to officials, the federal budget was allocated AUD 8,3 billion on innovative strategies during 2007-2008, and exploring its contemporary growth we can say that government makes all possible and even impossible to increase it from year to year. Exactly due to this fact we can emphasize that the service sector and high-technology industries provides about 78% of GDP of Australia, the manufacturing industry – 13%, the mining industry – 6%, and agriculture – more than 3%.

Let us explore some the most popular areas of the technology sector development. Firstly, it is important to pay our attention on information technologies, because information technology is a set of interrelated scientific, technological, and engineering sciences, which study methods of effective labor organization of people who are employed in sphere of handling and storage of information, who work with information through computer technology, and use different methods of organization and interaction with people and production equipment; thus, they interested in their practical application, associated with all social, economic and cultural issues. According to different statistical data, about ten percent of GDP is oriented on the information technology sector in Australia (Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, 2000). The industry continues to evolve for the purpose of to meet the internal needs of the state and exporting IT-products and services abroad. Observing existed situation Wong stated that “as the world recovers from the financial crisis and the pace of globalisation intensifies, Australia should position itself as a key provider of technology services. This is an area in which we have established strong competency, and our services capabilities are enhanced by our strength in international benchmarks.” (Wong, 2010). In addition to previous words Kane, Micolich and Rabeau declared that “it is interesting to note that, while the country’s IT sector is still very much younger compared to other developed countries, Australia was able to establish an extensive information technology industry. And the country has also been continuously on the forefront of development on the filed.” (Kane, Micolich and Rabeau, 2011).

Great potential and availability of information technology in Australia was estimated since 1990. We can note that exactly those years were highlighted with governmental support of IT development in the country. Afterwards, the development of information and communication technologies has reached a very high level during the last few decades in Australia. Today in Australia operates a number of large IT-companies and among them we can find such companies as IBM Australia, EDS, СSC, MYOB. However, the distinguishing feature of Australia’s IT-industry is the dominance of small firms. According to recent studies, 96% of all enterprises in the field of IT fall on small firms in the country (according to experts, this structure of the IT sector provides it with the greatest stability).

Taking into account modern changes in society it is possible to add that the modern concept of e-government that is mainly directed at improving governance and improving the quality of public services is also considered one of the parts of the technology sector growth. Emphasizing our attention to the IT component of the technology sector it is possible to mention that the concept of information technology development of Australia is built according to the following principle: the information that can be managed, is a national asset that should be used for the optimal development of the political sphere and improvement of basic public services. The goal of development is achieving a level at which every Australian can have access to various public information services. It allows to suppose that development of technologies that provide an opportunity for dialogue of any citizen of the country with each organization in the world, or with every citizen in any country, is a priority direction of development for the next few years.

The next interesting component of the technology sector is nanotechnology industry. It is obvious that the development of the Australian nanoscience brought tangible benefits to both large multinational companies of all key industries, beginning with aviation (The Boeing Company, Airbus Deutschland GmbH, Hawker de Havilland) and IT-companies (Intel, Sony), ending with health (Merck, Pasteur Institute of France) and mining (Rio Tinto), not forgetting, of course, about domestic firms and organizations.

Discussing the last achievements in the nanotechnology sphere, Australian scientists declared that they successfully conduct advanced research related to environmental problems. Nanotechnology applications in the environmental aspect became the central subject of the new program CleanFutures, emerged to unite the efforts of Australian organizations NanoVentures Australia, Australian CleanTech and Bridge8. The main task of the new company ”“ is production of nanotechnology, aimed at environmental preservation. The idea of a new project is found in a summation of activity of different components of its creation, like qualified management, finance potential, market promotion, competent marketing policies and support at the state level for the purpose of to ensure environmental cleanliness with the help of specially designed nanotechnologies in the future. Project leaders say that now they need to prepare a base for the technologies that will have a weight on society. Such technologies can certainly be based on interdisciplinary approaches; moreover, the integration of scientific innovation and their professional commercialization make these projects more attractive for future customers. At last, analyzing the importance of the development of nanotechnologies we can mention that humanity needs urgent decisions in the environmental sphere exactly nowadays, because only innovative nanotechnologies can help to decrease the results of harmful human activity and stop the climate change.

Thus, it is possible to sum up that Australia, being one of the most economically developed and stable countries in the world, allows people to find different novelties from its technology sector in their homes. In conclusion, its competent and having the entrepreneurial spirit population (more than 30% of the population have a college degree, plus a competent immigration policy of the country, sharpened to attract qualified professionals), well-proportioned and flexible infrastructure, substantial assistance from the state and strict adherence to intellectual property ”“ everything of this list makes Australia a very attractive place to build research centers and scientific research; thus, everything mentioned above helps not only to build prosperous country, but also to take care of the future of humankind using a big variety of technological achievements and innovations.

Works cited
Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. “Technology in Australia 1788-1988: A condensed history of Australian technological innovation and adaptation during the first two hundred years.” Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 2000.
Kane, D., Micolich, A. and Rabeau, J. Nanotechnology in Australia: Showcase of Early Career Research. Pan Stanford Publishing, 2011.
Wong, A. “Australia’s technology sector can be a global services powerhouse”. The Australian, June 15, 2010.



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