Australia is a stable, culturally diverse and democratic society with a skilled workforce and a strong, competitive economy. With a population of over 21 million, Australia is the only nation to govern an entire continent and is the sixth largest country in the world in land area. Australia’s multicultural society includes its Indigenous peoples and migrants from 200 countries.

Australia has 10 per cent of the world’s biodiversity and a great number of its native plants, animals and birds that exist nowhere else in the world. Australia is committed to conserving its unique environment and natural heritage and has a range of protection procedures in place, including World Heritage listings and many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

Australia has one of the most resilient, high growth economies in the world. It has an efficient government sector, a flexible labor market and a very competitive business sector. With abundant physical resources, Australia is having high standard of living since nineteenth century. It has been significantly investing in social infrastructure, including education, training, health and transport.Although Australia is an English speaking country, more than 20% of the population speaks a second language. Australia offers the familiarity of a western business culture with a workforce capable of operating in both Asian and western business environments, since Australia is having a wide range of native Asian language skills in the region. Migrants have a significant influence on all aspects of Australian society. Australia has been welcomed more than 6.5 million migrants from over 200 countries, including refugees.

Strong economy

Australia has one of the world’s most open and innovative economies and the Australian Government is committed to continue in this direction. Strong growth since the 1990s has been accompanied by strong productivity performance. Australia’s stable economic, political and social environment has led to increased foreign investment in recent years. Since 1990, Australia’s real economy has grown by an average of around 3.3 per cent a year. Australia’s GDP in 2006–07 (in value terms) was just over $1 trillion, making it the world’s 13th largest economy overall and the 10th largest industrialized economy.

As a result of major diversification of Australia’s export base, Australia is now not only a commodity exporter; it also has sophisticated manufacturing and service industries. The value of Australia’s exports in goods and services reached $215.8 billion in 2006–07, with service exports comprising $46.2 billion of that figure — 21.4 per cent of total exports. Japan remains our largest export market ($35.6 billion in 2006), followed by China ($26.4 billion), the United States ($15.5 billion), the Republic of Korea ($14.9 billion) and New Zealand ($12.7 billion). A recent OECD study suggests that Australia is ranked as one of the six fastest-growing new economy traders.

A cultural diverse society

Australia is a tolerant and inclusive society with people from many different backgrounds. Vietnam, China, Greece and the United Kingdom are among the main countries from which Australians have migrated. Cultural diversity has become a touchstone of Australia’s national identity. One example of this is the growth of Islam in Australia. Today, Muslims form an increasingly important part of Australia’s diverse, modern society, with the 2006 Census recording a total of more than 340000 Australian Muslims. Australia accepts and respects the rights of all Australians to express and share their individual cultural heritage within an overriding commitment to Australia’s democratic foundations and to English as the national language.

Great place to visit

Australia with spectacular natural environment, multicultural communities, food and wine, friendly people, combined with its weather and lifestyle place it amongst the world’s most popular tourist destinations. These qualities also make it one of the best places in the world to live and run business.
Tourism is one of Australia’s largest and fastest-growing industries. The number of short-term visitors to Australia grew from 4.3 million in 1997 to a record 5.6 million in 2007. The inbound tourism sector contributed about $22.6 billion to the Australian economy in 2006–07. Inbound tourism accounts for 12 per cent of Australia’s total export earnings, more than the combined value of Australian iron ore and aluminium exports for the year.
Australia’s unique environment has many native plants, animals and birds that exist nowhere else in the world. The country is actively committed to conserving its natural heritage and has a range of protection procedures in place. Despite the vast size of the continent, the majority of Australians live on the coast and in major cities. Around 75 per cent of Australia’s population lives in urban areas. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth. Its interior has one of the lowest rainfalls in the world and about three-quarters of the landmass are arid or semi-arid. These arid areas extend from the large central deserts to the western coast. Soils in these areas are characteristically very infertile compared to other deserts of comparable aridity. This has presented Australians with the challenge of how best to manage the variety of regions to meet the competing demands of agriculture, economy and conservation.