Australia rated 3rd globally as best country to do business

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The Heritage Foundation, a conservative US think tank, has once again named Australia as third freest nation in which to do business, putting Australia just behind Hong Kong and Singapore, and above New Zealand and Taiwan in fourth and fifth place.

 

With an economy that benefits from sound fundamentals including monetary stability, low public debt, and a vibrant employment market, Australia has weathered the global economic uncertainty well

 

Australia is ranked number 3 in the world of economic freedom, behind only the island states of Hong Kong and Singapore because its openness to global trade and investment is firmly institutionalised and supported by a relatively efficient entrepreneurial framework and a well-functioning independent judiciary.

 

The US dropped from the world's 10th to 12th freest of the 186 nations surveyed, and Heritage Foundation analyst Bryan Riley said that while in the organisation's view the Government's stimulus package during the global financial crisis had been a negative, Australia's bipartisan commitment to free trade and support for foreign investment, as well as its relatively low tax rates, were enough to keep it near the top.

 

Mr Robb released an Austrade benchmarking report outlining Australia's strengths in ''growth, innovation, talent, location and business''.  ''We are the only OECD country without a recession in 22 years,'' he said.

 

Almost 40% of our workforce holds tertiary qualifications and we rank third in the world in terms of the number of universities in the Top 100. 

 

It takes just two and a half days of red tape to start a business in Australia, compared with five days in the US and 12 days in Britain.