Leading Government Minister's Comments on Australian Economy

In a recent speech to a Forbes dinner in Beverly Hills, California, Australia’s Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, The Hon Ian Macfarlane talked about the strength of the Australian economy and potential into the future.

“Australia is one of the contemporary business bases of choice in the fast growing Asia Pacific region”, he said. “We are now in our 14th year of uninterrupted growth. The World Competitiveness Yearbook has judged us the most resilient economy in the world for the third straight year. Our strong economic growth rates continue to outrank most other major OECD economies, and is expected to continue with forecast growth of 3.8% in 2005 and 3.6% in 2006. This growth hasn’t been accidental.”

The Minister went on to say that the growth has been “built on sound economic management and reform, including tax reform, workplace reform and reducing trade barriers. We have a particularly strong resource sector but that’s only part of a diverse, sophisticated and modern economy. Service industries now account for almost 80% of our GDP. We have internationally acknowledged strengths in new technology sectors such as biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology. While Australia’s pool of investment fund assets is now the fourth largest in the world, valued at US$532 billion.”

“Australia now has more people employed in the finance sector than Singapore and Hong Kong combined. And we have the most multilingual workforce in the Asia-Pacific region. In fact they say there are only 3 cities in which all Asian languages are spoken – they are Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The Australian education system is ranked third in the world when it comes to meeting the needs of a competitive economy. And last year the World Bank rated Australia as the easiest place in the world to start a business.”

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David
editor@agarcarlyon.com