Australian businesses should forget trying to compete against global technology companies as the nation tries to recover from the COVID-19 recession, and stick instead to working on technologies that play to its traditional strengths, the head of the CSIRO says.

Dr Larry Marshall, the former Silicon Valley entrepreneur who took on the job of CSIRO chief executive five years ago, has warned Australia will suffer a "slow economic decline into the sunset" if it simply recovers from the recession but fails to take the opportunity to reshape the economy by using science and technology to enhance its well-known strengths.