Australia gives investors a competitive and quality choice business location in the Asia-Pacific region.
Australia is considered one of the least costly countries in the industrialised world in which to base a business (Source: KPMG, Competitive Alternatives, 2008).
Property prices are highly competitive, with the cost of prime office space in Australia’s state capitals cheaper than in most global and commercial centres. The cost of office space in Sydney is around 65 per cent less than in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Mumbai (Source: CB Richard Ellis, Global Market Rents, May 2009).
Australia offers comparatively low energy costs, with electricity costs per kilowatt hours for industrial clients in Australia cheaper than in the UK, Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan. Australian energy prices and petrol prices were ranked as the 10th and 14th lowest respectively out of 57 key economies (Source: IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2009).
Another popular drawcard for investors is the fact that Australia is the ninth lowest taxing country in the 30 member OECD, with its tax revenue as a percentage of GDP being 30.8 per cent compared to an OECD average of 35.8 per cent (Source: OECD 2008).
While Australia's workforce is one of the most highly skilled and multilingual in the world, remuneration levels for management staff in Australia are lower than in the US, the UK, Germany, France, Canada and Hong Kong (Source: IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2009), and salary levels for highly skilled professionals are generally lower than in comparable financial centres around the globe.
The cost of living in Australia’s capital cities is also lower than in most other major capitals worldwide, including Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York City, Singapore, London, Los Angeles and Dubai (Source: Mercer Worldwide Cost of Living Sydney 2009).
Complementing these attractive cost benefits, Australia's metropolitan areas are fully serviced by sophisticated telecommunications, transport infrastructure and utilities.
Australia's transport and logistics systems provide an efficient and cost effective means of delivering products around the world. Domestic road, rail and air services between Australia's major centres are frequent, reliable and cost effective.
The Australian Government also recently committed A$27 million to infrastructure as part of a ‘Nation Building for the Future’ program to be implemented over the six years to 2013-14.
The country’s overall cost competitiveness is a clear commercial advantage of doing business in Australia.
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