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Adelaide best for new ideas

SOUTH Australian businesses have been found in an Australian Bureau of Statistics survey to be leading the nation in their use of innovation.

The inaugural ABS Survey of Innovation in Australia in 2003 found 45.9 per cent of South Australian companies were innovating to improve their performance.

This was well ahead of the next largest finding - New South Wales' 36.4 per cent - and was an "excellent" credential for the State's future, South Australian economist Professor Richard Blandy said.

"I think it is very exciting and one of the great things going for the State," said Prof Blandy, director of the University of South Australia's Centre for Innovation and Development.

"The (survey) suggests that South Australia is very much keeping up with the globalising world."

Prof Blandy said the survey, of 8000 companies, showed South Australia led all other states in the use of innovation to improve goods and services and operational and management processes. "I think it goes a long way to explain why a place like South Australia has been doing okay in recent times," he said.

Electronics Industry Association of South Australia executive director Jason Kuchel said he was not surprised by the findings.

"The electronics industry in the State spends a high proportion of expenditure on research and development and is acutely aware they must continue to innovate to ensure their products are world-competitive," Mr Kuchel said.

"To move on world markets, South Australian firms must design and bring products to market faster than competitors, so the commercialisation process has generally been shortened by companies as they become more export oriented."