Speaking at the launch of CeBIT Australia 2004 in Sydney, CeBIT Australia managing director Jackie Taranto explained that Australia now ranks number two globally in e-Government implementation behind the United States and ahead of the UK, Canada and Germany. This example is providing the stimulus for other areas to embrace the e-business culture. “To support this emphasis, we’ve incorporated a one-day e-Government forum into next year’s show,” says Taranto. “This is a first.”
The forum will take place on 4 May 2004. Taranto says the forum will facilitate knowledge exchange between industry representatives and provide a global platform showcasing Australia’s e-expertise.
Among the already successful e-Government programs implemented in Australia are the e-Tax online lodgement system, JobSearch and the Business Entry Point for all dealings between government and private enterprise. An electronics tendering system is also currently being implemented.
Taranto confirmed CeBit’s commitment to Australia and NZ by highlighting that the Sydney event is one of only four regional venues, along with New York, Shanghai and Istanbul, and, despite pressure to do so, the company “has no plans to open CeBit at another venue”.
“[We] believe in the innovative resource of this region,” Taranto adds. “That’s why we have set up our [IT] event here.”
CeBIT also plans to strengthen “future parc”—a highlight of this year’s exhibition—at the 2004 show. Among the R&D on show at this year’s event was Canberra-based Seeing Machines’ faceLAB driver fatigue monitoring system (see Electronics News 22 May 03 front cover) and Victoria University of Technology researchers’ development of a wireless technique, which takes advantage of the multipath fading channel that plagues many indoor WiFi installations.
Quelle: Electronicsnews, 23.10.2003
