The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report, released recently, shows that Australia has slipped from 16th to 19th in the Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index – lagging behind comparable economies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and France.

Australia remains well behind other countries in rankings for infrastructure, innovation and the regulatory burden on business.

On innovation, Australia’s trails our major regional competitors, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.

Australia’s ranking on innovation came in at 22nd place overall – behind Iceland and Malaysia and only slightly ahead of New Zealand and Tunisia .

Areas identified as “notable competitive disadvantages” for Australia included:

• University/ industry research collaboration (22nd). 
• Company spending on research and development (25th). 
• Government procurement of technology products based on technical performance and innovativeness rather than simply price (28th). 
• Capacity for innovation, or the degree to which companies conduct formal research or pioneer new products and processes (30th). 
• Availability of scientists and engineers (34th).