Overall Australia has a strong technological base encompassing a few inherent weaknesses. Hopefully with the forward thinking of the Australian government, Australia can overcome these to make the nation a haven for conducting international business in the future. However, in the mean time, a global non information technology firm deciding whether to conduct business in Australia should first weigh the costs and benefits of each competency or non-competency before entering the market.
Deregulation and the Market
Although Australia is continuing its pursuit to further deregulate the telecommunications market to open and foster more competition, multinational corporations still do not see the nation as a major investment site. This is partly due to Australia’s high capital gains tax and small domestic market. In addition, Australia does not offer lucrative incentives like those in Singapore and Malaysia.
Telecommunications Infrastructure
On the other hand, Australia’s telecommunication structure is one of the best in the world and continues to upgrade with current technological advances such as broadband networks and ISDN services. These have allowed indigenous corporations to quickly access information although at a slightly higher cost. While some areas of telecommunications have seen marketable improvements in cost, others remain high. For example, businesses tend to pay higher than average prices for domestic long distance calls. This could hamper a company’s ability to communicate with its vendors, suppliers and customers; an important factor when deciding where to operate a business. These company’s should also realize, though, other services such as mobile charges and leased line services are more competitively priced and once the remaining market is deregulated other prices should fall.
Information Technology Professionals
Australians have a record of being early adopters and heavy users of technologies such as computers, mobiles telephones and electronic funds transfer. In addition, they have one of the highest take up rates of new technologies like video recorders, and mobile phones. This has created a strong base of IT professionals who are technically competent and possess leading IT skills to support corporate information systems. However, these individuals tend to lack the knowledge to facilitate large international projects.
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URL: http://www.http://gurukul.ucc.american.edu/initeb/lk0767a/australi.htm
Author: Linda Kallmeyer
Last Update: May 6, 1997