Australia - The Intelligent Investors' Choice
	"The accolades from leading global institutions continue to be heaped on Australia. The country's sophisticated and resilient economy, political stability, ease of starting a business, low cost business location, highly skilled and multi-lingual workforce, as well as its enviable position as the best place in Asia-Pacific to live and work, are some of the accolades lavished on the 20 million people strong island 'down under'," says ResearchWorldwide.com - The Worldwide Commercial Real Estate Information Portal.
"The Free Trade Agreement between the USA and Australia, which came into effect on January 1, 2005, will only further enhance Australia's position as a country with strong investor appeal in the first quarter of the 21st Century", says ResearchWorldwide.com. Being ranked as the most resilient economy by the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2004 for the third year running is a consequence of Australia's 14th year of uninterrupted economic growth. Over the last seven years, its average annual real GDP has been 3.7%. Australia's economic prospect - forecast by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) - is 3.8% for 2005 and 3.6% for 2006. These figures are 0.5% - 0.7% p.a. higher than the average OECD countries' growth rates for 2005 - 2006. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) praises Australia for its strong economic performance, six years of budget surpluses, falling public debt, low inflation, high and rising productivity and a dynamic job market. Australia is strongly favoured as a recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI), according to global consulting firm, A T Kearney, in its latest FDI Confidence Index. Australia jumped from 19th place in 2003 to 7th most attractive market worldwide in 2004. This reflects the increasing confidence foreign investors have in Australia. According to The Economist Intelligence Unit Australia is rated the best place in Asia-Pacific to live and work. "Australia, as a growing OECD country, is powerfully placed as a springboard to the fastest growing economic region in the world - Asia-Pacific. Australia's proximity to this fast growing economic region, augers well for it being selected as a country of choice for the regional headquarters of multi-national organizations," says ResearchWorldwide.com Australia's multi-lingual workforce is drawn from citizens who originate from over 200 countries worldwide. Some 25% of Australia's labour force was born overseas, with the UK, Ireland, Oceania, New Zealand, South East Asia, Southern and Eastern Europe topping the list. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, fifteen percent of the Australian population speak a language other than English at home. Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Mandarin are the most spoken foreign languages by Australians. With a sophisticated financial services sector employing some 350,000 people, Australia's pool of investment fund assets under management is US$547 billion - the fourth largest in the world. From a real estate viewpoint, Australia is ranked as the second most cost-competitive and one of the lowest cost-business locations for companies and organizations in the industrialised world, according to global consulting firm KPMG's 2004 Survey. Global real estate company CB Richard Ellis' August 2004 Worldwide Survey shows that prime office space in Sydney is around 74% less than in London, 61% less than in Tokyo and 12% less than in New York. The global strategic alliance of Grubb & Ellis and Knight Frank's 'Global Property Report 2005 Real Estate Forecast' ranks Australian cities highly in the Top 10 strong office, industrial and retail market places for Asia-Pacific cities. In the office market, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane feature prominently. The industrial market highlights Melbourne and Adelaide in the top two places, with Brisbane, Sydney and Perth within reach. The retail market features Hong Kong as the top city, followed by five Australian cities in places 2 - 6 in the Top 10. These cities are Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. "Australia is currently the world's 13th largest economy. With the attributes it possesses this could possibly allow the country 'down under' to leapfrog over India, Mexico and Korea and become the 10th largest economy in the world in the not so distant future. Australia will certainly feature on the intelligent investors' shopping list as one of the prime countries in which to invest", says ResearchWorldwide.com - The Worldwide Commercial Real Estate Information Portal. Issued by: ResearchWorldwide.com - The Worldwide Commercial Real Estate Information Portal http://www.researchworldwide.com