Business Environment


Strength, stability and open government

Australia is a politically and economically stable democratic nation that provides a low risk business environment. It has flexible, accountable financial practices, open regulation and transparent government policy.

The legal system in Australia is a mixture of common law and statute and both domestic and foreign companies have the same standing before the law.

Australia has among the world's most effective competition laws and an independent judiciary. Australia's intellectual property protection is ranked number two in the Asia Pacific.

Time zone advantage

Sydney's time zone, 10 hours ahead of GMT, spans the closing of the North American business day and the opening of business in Europe. Sydney's market trades ahead of Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Favourable tax system

The company income tax rate is 30 per cent in Australia. There are no restrictions on capital flow, profit remittances, capital repatriation, transfers or royalties and trade-related payments.

Competitive business costs

Sydney offers a global city office location at an affordable price and is less expensive than Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Paris and Singapore.

Its advantage as an Asia Pacific business base includes the threefold benefits of lower salaries for highly skilled labour and economical operating and infrastructure costs.

World class infrastructure and communications

Sydney and the State of New South Wales offer reliable communications, transport, utilities, business support services and superior commercial property, at more competitive costs than other major Asian business centres.

In regional areas, the State Government has increased business appeal by cutting power bills for regional businesses, reforming rail freight, reducing port charges and streamlining the land-use planning approvals process.

Sydney has a world class telecommunications infrastructure. Australian domestic networks consist of fibre-optic, wireless, satellite and microwave systems. Fibre-optic is the predominant technology. Major networks are dense wave division multiplexing based, enabling an easy upgrade.

Educated workforce

Sydney and surrounding regions are home to a multilingual and well educated workforce. In 2006, more than two million employees or 54 per cent of the total held post-school qualifications.

With over 25 per cent born overseas, more than 1.2 million residents speak a language other than English at home.

These language skills provide a business advantage for export-oriented Australian companies.

Business and skilled migration

Australia's immigration system may allow entry of specialist staff into Australia on a temporary or permanent basis where vacancies cannot be filled from the local labour market or through training.

New South Wales welcomes business migrants who plan to set up a business or invest. See Business, Skilled and Regional Migration for more information.




Department of State and Regional Development
Sydney Australia