Business expenditure on research and development (BERD) has jumped by 15 percent, reaching $14,380 million in 2007-08, according to statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr welcomed the increase.
“It is good to see strong growth in business spending on R&D,” he said.
However he warned that 2007-08 was a boom year, and it will be difficult to maintain such momentum through the financial crisis.
To keep the momentum going, he is encouraging businesses to consider programs that will help them to boost investment, such as the Government’s new R&D Tax Credit scheme, along with existing programs such as Enterprise Connect and the Commonwealth Commercialisation Institute, designed to get more firms developing new ideas and turning them into money-making goods and services.
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