NZ spends way up elite ladder

By PETER GRIFFIN

New Zealand has beaten some of the world's richest nations in spending on information and communication technology as a percentage of gross domestic product.

The country spent 14.4 per cent of GDP on information and communication technology (ICT) last year to head an unusual list of countries, including Colombia, Australia and the Czech Republic, trying to spend their way into the knowledge economy.

The NZ Government has forecast GDP of $113 billion for financial 2001. Based on research company IDC's figures, this would equate to more than $16 billion in ICT spending, a huge jump from the $11.1 billion Statistics New Zealand valued the market at in the 2000 financial year..

On a spending per capita basis, New Zealand sinks to 17th place, says Digital Planet 2002, a report by the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (Witsa), which incorporates IDC's research and drew considerable attention at last week's world IT congress in Adelaide.

New Zealand spent $4312 on ICT for for every citizen last year, making total ICT spending of over $16.68 billion - $7.99 billion of which was in telecoms.

Switzerland topped the list with US$3618 ($8500) per capita. The United States spent US$2923 ($6870) and Denmark US$2911 ($6842).

The alliance's report noted that ICT spending in relation to GDP had become more evenly distributed throughout the world, "with countries finding that technology is not just the result of economic prosperity but an important means of obtaining it".

In the internet arena, New Zealand seems to compare well. Only 0.8 per cent of the country's total commerce takes place online, but that was double the 2000 figure and puts the country in third place behind Canada and Sweden.

While 72 per cent of businesses had a presence online by last year, 20 per cent had e-commerce sites and 14 per cent of IT spending was channelled into e-business.

* The number of PCs in New Zealand grew last year to 1.7 million; 22.7 per cent of them are used in education.

* The number of home internet users grew to nearly 1.3 million.

* Cyberspace in general added 123 million users last year to create an online community of 522 million - 160 million of which are in the US.

* Total global spending for last year was US$2.4 trillion ($5.64 trillion), up from US$2.3 trillion in the previous year - a jump of less than 4 per cent.

* 13.7 per cent fewer PCs were sold worldwide in the third quarter of last year than in the same quarter of the previous year.

Despite 18 months of "economic doldrums, the knock-on effects of September 11 and the failure of any single 'new, new' innovation", the report is optimistic about the IT sector's future.

* The US remained the world leader in information and communication technology spending, with US$812.6 billion ($1.9 trillion) last year, followed by Japan at US$413.7 billion ($972 billion) and Germany's $154.6 billion ($363 billion).

* People around the world are becoming increasingly accustomed to having PCs around the house. In 1993, the US had 55 per cent of all home-based personal computers. Last year, that percentage dropped to just under 40 per cent. Japan's share of the global home PC market more than tripled during this period, from 3.4 per cent to 11.9 per cent.

Broadband uptake, consensus on IT law, intellectual property protection, the further privatisation of government infrastructure and the development of e-business exchanges are expected to drive growth in information and communication technology. So too are emerging markets such as China, Poland, India and Brazil.