Australia slides down the ranks of the latest CISCO’s Digital Readiness Index report as one of the countries that are best equipped to embrace the digital economy, showing the digital divide between states and territories as the key factor.
Despite the country’s efforts to increase of investment towards technology adoption and local start-ups, the global report revealed that the country has gone four places down from its initial rank, from the 12th to the 16th.
“Australia performed pretty well, we improved our digital readiness across all seven categories we assessed, so there was a lot to be pleased about. But, there were two challenges on the back of that,” Cisco Australia and New Zealand vice president Ben Dawson said to The Australian Financial Review.
“While we remain in the amplify category [the top tier of countries globally], the slip was attributable to other countries moving faster than us. The second thing was we didn’t take everyone on the journey with us… there is a digital divide on a state level.”
CISCO’s report uses seven categories to measure a country’s capacity to participate in the digital economy: basic needs, human capital, business and government investment, ease of doing business, startup environment, technology adoption and technology infrastructure.
Through the categories, it was found that, aside from other countries outpacing Australia in terms of digital readiness, states and territories were also divided in terms of progress.
Areas such as the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and South Australia saw improvements in the components, while others such as Tasmania and Western Australia witnessed a drop in their ranks.
It was also found that, in the time between the recent and previous 2019 Digital Readiness Index report, no progress has been made to address the digital divide between states and territories.
“We need to have a national strategy that goes beyond a stated aspiration,” Mr Dawson said.
“Digitisation can drive huge productivity benefits … The risk is [if] we don’t continue to move forward in this space.”
Mr Dawson further states that Australia cannot afford to stand still in terms of becoming a digital government, as maintaining the current level of investment towards technology adoption puts the country at risk of falling behind and increasing the current digital division.
“As digitisation continues to accelerate, the report highlights the continued need for Australia to focus and invest across all the digital readiness components to capture the opportunities of a resilient, sustainable and equitable society,” he said.
“While it is always difficult to predict the future, one forecast that can be made with certainty is that the digital skills and infrastructure required by Australia today will be insufficient for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”