Australia has now slipped to 102nd in the world from 93rd on the ECI index. It can’t get much worse. Wrong direction. We have to turn this around.

The world is in flux and turmoil. And the latest ECI rating figures are not better than last year. 

They are worse. Much worse. Down, down, down. Australia has to wake up. Now. 

The Harvard Atlas of Economic Complexity says this about Australia, 

“The largest contribution to export growth comes from mineral fuels, ores, oils and waxes, slag and ash. Australia has added one new product – rare earths – since 2007. Australia has diversified into too few products to contribute to substantial income growth. Australia has not yet started the traditional process of structural transformation.”

Basically, we sell dirt. When we need to sell 21st century products and services. 

By comparison, even though Canada, New Zealand and Australia have all slipped, New Zealand has pretty much maintained its position, and Canada (a cold version of Australia) is managing its minerals, agriculture, tourism and industry complexity far better than us. 

The comment that Australia has not yet started structural transformation is correct.

And insightful. Due to years of big mining royalties, we have become lazy and smug. Blue sky, sun, a long way from the rest of the world, what could possibly go wrong?

No vision. No strategy. No 20-year plan. No 5-year plan. No 1-year plan. In fact, no plan at all. 

Throwing money at Quantum, AI, solar and hydrogen is not strategic action. It creates a foundation for strategic action. Which we need. But we also need products and services to build on those foundations. And products and services that recognise the concept of “added value”. 

Adding value through technology, branding, design and marketing can add enormous value to a sale. Yet “adding value”, which every other advanced country does, is not something we are good at in Australia.

“Ship dirt out the door” seems to be our mantra.

And that action, influences our thinking about everything. Commodity thinking. Commodity mindset. No sophistication. No subtlety. No applied intelligence.

And most other countries in the OECD are investing in quantum, AI, solar, hydrogen and fusion as well.

We need to get smart about this. Pick winners. Take the same approach to the economy as we do to our sports stars who win gold medals. We know how to do this. We just need to apply the same approach to our businesses and startups. 

Giving support to horizontal platforms is not picking winners. It’s avoiding picking winners. 

Commodity thinking again. That is why we are now 102nd and not still 93rd.

Structural transformation as explained by the Harvard Atlas, “is a key source of economic growth, this process reallocates economic activity from low to high productivity sectors.”

But we just ship minerals and commodity products out the door. We have not yet started the traditional process of structural transformation. We need to start it now.

Five steps. High schools. Incubators. Universities. “Pick winners”. Export.

The future starts in our schools.

And we need to help students and their parents make more informed study and work choices that reflect what we actually do in this country and what is happening in the world around us. And reflect and prepare them for a changing world. It’s not just “be a lawyer, doctor, accountant, dentist” or whatever. There are more relevant options than that.

The myREGION.au platform now includes a section for students, schools and parents to help them make informed choices. It includes all the universities and TAFEs that can help, matched to every subject or issue that students may be interested in.

Our incubators need to be better informed.

We need to help startups and innovation initiatives appreciate and understand the “big picture” so they can decide where they might fit into the rebuilding strategy. Incubators have no focus. They have enthusiasm. They have ideas. But that is not good enough.

No client walks into an ad agency and says, “give me some ideas, any ideas.” No. It starts with strategy. The market. The product. The opportunity. That is what is provided to the creative teams to generate ideas. Ideas and innovations with focus, direction and purpose.

All incubators need to understand the market, the competition, the opportunity, the size of the opportunity. We waste so much time and energy “re-inventing the wheel” in Australia. 

And the incubators need linking into a national innovation system. That shares and collaborates as well as competing. Shared value. 

The myREGION.au platform can do that. 

Our universities need to engage with industry

We need to leverage the intellectual horse power in our universities. The potential is there, but not focused or channelled in support of our key industries. Industry engagement is not funded. It could be. It should be. And should match and support a national strategy.

Industry engagement is currently well meaning, but bitsy. Ad hoc. Parochial.

Linking university brainpower with industry in a strategic, national pattern is of paramount importance.

The myREGION.au platform is designed to do this. Region. Industries. Engagement.

Pick winners

We need to pick the key industries in which we can create “winners”. We know what they are. We know who they are. The seeds are there. They need selecting, planting, nurturing and growing. 

Talent spotting, training and targeting the “medal options” locally, and then supporting this approach at the national level = Australian Institute of Sport. We need an Australian Institute of Economic Opportunity. An innovation catalyst. 

The myREGION.au platform is a “virtual” Australian Institute of Economic Development. It is the only platform if its kind, customised to our regions and states, our industry sectors, supported by a “change management” framework of groups to discuss strategy, action, projects and support initiatives at a local, regional and national level. Shared value.

Customised to Australia. 

Export showcase

And last but not least, we need to not just diversify the products and services we create, we need to diversify the markets we sell into.

That means letting the world know what we can do. And once again, currently the only shop window” of Australian products and services to the world exists on the myREGION.au platform. It was used during COVID to present 200 Australian F&B exporters to 400 Japanese buyers, and has since been expanded to include “shop windows” for many other products as well.

Including Indigenous Arts and Culture.

Most shops put their products on show in a window.

The myREGION.au platform puts Australian products and services in multiple windows for the world to see.

Five steps. High schools. Incubators. Universities. Pick winners. Export.

The myREGION.au platform has evolved over many years of feedback to match these five steps. 

National, when our states and councils are parochial, short term and inwardly competitive.

Agnostic, when our governments come and go regularly with vested interests and political short-term whims, that don’t always match the long term needs of a successful and productive Australia.

Targeted, when our “national” vision and direction is fickle at best. 

102nd in the world for economic complexity is not a death sentence…yet. But it could be.

We have the brainpower and the mineral wealth to turn this around.

I invite anybody and everybody who would like to know more about the myREGION.au platform to have a TEAMS’ tour.

It is not a website. It is a platform that includes multiple websites. Hundreds, if not thousands of them. 

And it has evolved and continues to evolve month by month, as new people take a tour of the new version and suggest additions and improvements. 

It can support local networks, regional networks, and national networks in a manner that allows networks to be public or private but also to engage with other networks productively.

Cross pollination. Strategic.

No other platform can do this. No other platform has been created, structured and customised to match Australia’s regions, sectors and networking needs.

We have been told time after time, when people have a TEAMS’ tour, “Wow, this is remarkable. Government should have done this.”

Correct.

But for many reasons, government could never have done this.

Long term. Government doesn’t do that. It does election cycle.

National. Government doesn’t really do that either.

Holistic. Government doesn’t do holistic.

I met with 5 government departments in Canberra a few years ago, and showed them what we were doing.

I then asked them, which department was responsible for Australia’s holistic vision.

They all laughed. Then one of them said, “DCITA” and the rest of them laughed. 

And another finally said, “Office of the Prime Minister.” And they all really laughed. 

So, “You are telling me nobody.” I said and they all nodded.

That is the reason we decided to use the data and information we had collected from our 50,000 surveys and various projects to create a national shared value platform, to bring that knowledge together regardless of federal, state or local government interest. 

Because Australia is a big place and the regions and remote areas always lose out. The only way to bring it all together is virtually. Hence the myREGION.au platform.

When you live in a country with the potential that Australia has with its mineral wealth and brain power, and you have kids and grandkids hoping for a future, there really is no choice. 

Simple really. The platform magnifies the “power of one”. Individuals. Groups. Networks. Businesses. Universities and even government departments. Each can use the platform to magnify its impact.

But the real power of one comes when all the ones start working together.

1 + 1 can then equal 11. Or more.

And Australia can then move up from 102nd as high as we choose to go.