SYDNEY, Australia -- 26 March 2001 -- Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, is working with the Allen Consulting Group and Monash University's Centre of Policy Studies to report on the impact of the Internet Economy in Australia.
The independent study, the first of its kind in Australia, will attempt to measure the size of the Internet Economy, the revenues and productivity it generates and the value it adds to the economy at large. Preliminary results from the study are expected in early April.
The comprehensive study will be based on interviews conducted with more than 600 businesses of varying sizes, across nine major traditional sectors, including agriculture & mining, manufacturing, transport, finance, communications and tourism.
Cisco Australia & New Zealand Managing Director, Terry Walsh, said the survey was based on studies in the US, undertaken by the University of Texas and Cisco in recent years.
"Those studies continue to showed the impact of the Internet Economy in the US is immense and it is getting larger. However, less is known qualitatively or quantitatively about the size of the Internet Economy in Australia," Mr Walsh said.
The University of Texas study was first recorded in 1998, and has now been updated four times. The most recent version of the study, released in January 2001, showed that the Internet Economy in the US generated more than $US830 billion in revenues during 2000, up 156 per cent since 1998.
Allen Consulting Group Director, Kerry Barwise said there was a deliberate emphasis on adapting the study's criteria to Australian industry conditions and to ensure it measured activities across a wide spectrum of the old and new economy.
"We are attempting to measure the take up of Internet technologies, and their impact on, the industries which drive the Australian economy," Mr Barwise said.
"We were also concerned that this survey should not be confined to the IT industry or the so-called 'dot coms'. It is essential to look deeper into the use of the Internet economy, to examine how business in general is using the Internet to make purchases to reduce their costs or increase their choice of inputs," he said.
The study will report on a matrix of indicators, including the number and nature of businesses in the Internet Economy, their contribution to economic activity and the employment base of firms in the Internet Economy. It will also indicate the growth trends and the size of productivity gains expected from Internet Economy participants. Barriers to engaging in the Internet Economy will also be assessed.
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