Speech
Address to Australia-Taiwan ICT Talks
21 September 2009
Introduction
I am delighted to have the opportunity to address the Australia-Taiwan 5th ICT Talks today, which will focus on the Australia Taiwan Strategic Framework Agreement.
Before I begin, however, I’d like to acknowledge the presence here today of our guests from Taiwan, and to thank them for visiting my home town, Melbourne.
I particularly welcome Richard Leu, the leader of Taiwan’s delegation, and also George Wang, the vice president of Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry.
And I give a warm welcome and thanks to Dr Bill Petreski, the Ai Group’s principal ICT adviser; to Ian Watt, the chairman of the Australia-Taiwan ICT Cluster; and to Angus Robinson, the executive director of the Australia Taiwan Business Council.
ICT and Economic Growth
Information and Communications Technology is at the heart of the dramatic productivity increases which the Australian economy, and of course other economies, have achieved over the last generation.
The global economy is driven and powered by computers and if the economists are right, developments in information technology are shaping the fundamental dynamics of modern economic and even social interconnectivity.
We don’t need to be ICT economists to know this, either, but we certainly need to appreciate it, and to emphasise its fundamental importance.
The applications of ICT have become part of daily life, encompassing most of what we do at work and even at play. ICT is the 21st century’s technological equivalent to the invention of the combustion engine.
We can see with our own eyes the wondrous efficiencies of ICT, and even if we can only imagine their applications in the worlds of business and finance, we know that ICT will be playing a big role there too.
So in addressing you on the ways in which Australia and Taiwan can --and are-- developing their ICT businesses, we are at the commencement of significant collaboration.
The early founders of economics realised that technology and economic growth were inter-related.
This practical truth about one of the main sources of growth is one which the Australian Government takes very seriously, and is reflected in our major policies to boost the nation’s productivity.
So much so that we decided earlier this year, through the Government’s trade and investment arm, Austrade, in cooperation with the Ai Group, to fund an initiative called the Australian-Taiwan ICT cluster.
The purpose of the cluster is to create a collaborative relationship between Australian and Taiwan ICT firms, in the hope that it will lead to new discoveries and their subsequent marketing as products.
I’ll have more to say about the ICT cluster and its outcomes.
Before then, I’d like to say a few words about Australia’s economy and our trade and investment relations with Taiwan.
Australia and Taiwan’s Trade and Investment Ties
Taiwan and Australia have similar sized populations, and as island peoples we have both ventured out into the global economy to secure our prosperity.
Australia is the fastest growing economy in the developed world, and so far we have avoided the recession which has damaged other major economies.
The global financial crisis has not left Australia unscathed, of course, but our economy is still growing and we have done better than most.
In the June quarter, Australia’s economy grew by 0.6 per cent, which in the current global situation represents a solid performance.
Australia’s interest rates are at a record low, our banking system is sound and well regulated and the Government’s fiscal stimulus packages have done a lot to stabilise the economy.
A generation of economic liberalisation in Australia has helped to secure our current prosperity and Taiwan, I note, shares with Australia a sense of the importance of economic reform.
In May, 2008, for example, Taiwan committed itself to improving its international competitiveness through deregulation and liberalisation.
Australia’s trade and investment relations with Taiwan are in excellent shape. Our industries export coal, iron ore, copper and aluminium and in return we import refined petroleum, telecommunications equipment and computers.
Taiwan was Australia’s 8th largest export destination in 2008, with goods exports increasing by 39.5 per cent in that year. Total exports of goods and services to Taiwan was A$8.7 billion.
Taiwan is also a major and, might I add, a very welcome investor in Australia. Total Taiwan investment here stood at A$4.2 billion in 2008, while Australian investment in Taiwan was $2.3 billion. We would welcome growth in two-way investment commensurate with the importance of the trading relationship, and building on the complementarities of our economies.
Our economic relationship is therefore a solid one, with a bright future, and naturally we would like to see these ties grow stronger.
We also welcome improved cross-Strait cooperation and are watching closely the negotiations on an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement. We hope that this too, will open up new avenues for trade and investment links between Australia and Taiwan.
The Australia-Taiwan ICT Cluster
We are pleased that Australia and Taiwan have joined to help their ICT firms through the ICT Cluster, which was launched in May at the CeBit conference in Sydney.
According to Taiwan data, Taiwan makes 29 mainly ICT products which are ranked number one in the world in terms of production value or volume.
This is, quite frankly, a staggering achievement and a testament to Taiwan’s enterprise.
The Cluster builds on the earlier ICT strategic framework agreement, signed in 2005.
Australia is also a significant player in the production of ICT, with $8.8 billion in annual sales.
In 2007–08 Australia's exports of ICT goods and services totalled $5.2 billion.
It is well worth noting that the overall Australian ICT market is valued at over $97.8bn, and employs around 300,000 people, with a further 88,700 ICT workers spread across other sectors of the economy. Furthermore, there are over 30 300 ICT businesses in this country.
Australian firms are very innovative in applying ICT to industry, or at finding practical ways to benefit commercially from the technological insight.
But to bring a new idea to fruition, to make it and then sell it into a global supply chain, often requires an outside partner with an existing presence in the market.
That is why the Australian Government decided, through its Global Opportunities Program, to fund the ICT Cluster with Taiwan for three years.
The ICT Cluster, by setting up a hub that provides information, a network of contacts and advice, seeks to solve the twin problems of commercialisation and global marketing.
In practice, the hub gives Australian firms access to Taiwan businesses and decision makers, offers business missions to Taiwan, valuable information seminars and local knowledge and market data.
Two projects, Health Track and SmartTrack, are early fruits of this collaboration and utilise technology with a potential for mass marketing.
Both projects use radio-frequency identification tracking and sophisticated software to achieve greater efficiencies in day-to-day tasks.
HealthTrack allows doctors treating intensive care patients to speed up the time it takes to adjust their treatment, by an average of one hour.
Software developed by an Australian firm, Alcidion, provides doctors with faster data on changes in the clinical signs of their patients.
Alcidion’s breakthrough device is now being trialled in three Melbourne hospitals.
Taiwan may provide the radio tracking technology underlying HealthTrack, which would then offer an opportunity for Australian firms to adapt it.
There is now the prospect of a hospital in Taiwan conducting a pilot project. The Australian Government is very supportive of this initiative.
The data from this pilot project will be jointly analysed by the Australian e-Health Research Centre and Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute.
HealthTrack technology is also being used to ease the pressure on hospital beds by making it safer for the chronically ill to be monitored from home over the Internet or by phone.
This can allow changes to their medication or condition to be messaged through to their doctors, providing for a more efficient diagnostic procedure.
The other service to come out of the Cluster is SmartTrack, which allows the radio-tracking of goods, such as perishable foods, in transit.
The software for SmartTrack is being developed by two Australian firms, Unique Micro Design and Wirelessworx. It will provide critical information to buyers and sellers about the status of their product.
The application of SmartTrack to expensive perishable goods like upmarket food means that buyers and sellers can keep track of the progress of, say, a fresh lobster in transit from a fish market in Australia to a restaurant in Taiwan.
SmartTrack has developed as a result of cooperation between three Australian companies and two of their Taiwan counterparts.
These two examples provide a very good illustration of how the ICT Cluster can work and I recommend them as case studies on how the Cluster can help your line of ICT business.
Conclusion
Australian firms have found in Taiwan a successful practitioner of ICT and a collaborative business partner.
As many of you will know, Taiwan is a world leader in the sale of ICT products, earning an average of US$90 billion a year in sales revenue.
It is fitting that Taiwan is the host of Asia’s premier annual ICT exhibition, Taitronics, which will be held in Taipei in October.
Moreover Taiwan enterprise is driving China’s advances in the ICT industry, significantly contributing to China’s ICT output, a truly remarkable achievement.
Australian firms can clearly benefit from Taiwan’s experience in successful global competition. That is something which the Australian Government recognised in its decision to fund the Cluster through its Global Opportunities Program.
Australia remains deeply impressed by Taiwan’s status as one of the world’s great exporting hubs and producer of high volume ICT technology.
I urge Australian firms interested in developing new applications of ICT to join the Cluster, which has been guided by the solid efforts of the Ai Group, here and abroad.
Thank you.