Investment Opportunities


As one of the Asia Pacific's leading financial and commercial centres, Sydney is a preferred choice for Chinese companies planning to "go global". The city's business infrastructure is particularly strong, with open and well regulated legal and banking systems and long term political stability. Operating in a mature services economy, the people of Sydney possess a sophisticated range of commercial and technical skills and a breadth of Asian languages in a single location unmatched anywhere in the world. After English, Chinese languages are the most commonly spoken in New South Wales.

Several industries stand out as providing significant opportunities:

Pharmaceuticals

Australia is the top ranking location for clinical trials, with competitive costs and a high percentage of trials completed on time. The availability of pharmaceutical and research skills, coupled with the ethnic diversity of the population, position Australia as the optimal location for clinical trials.

New South Wales is the centre of the Australian pharmaceutical industry. Major multinational pharmaceutical companies which operate manufacturing facilities in New South Wales include AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer and Roche.

New South Wales is also home to extensive research and commercialisation capabilities in drug discovery and biotechnology, with expertise in informatics, genomics, proteomics, immunology, cancer research, respiratory medicine, diagnostics, environmental biotechnology, nanotechnology and traditional Chinese medicine.

These activities are supported by a network of world class technology parks, high quality research facilities and government programs, as well as support to ensure patent and copyright protection.

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Information and communications technology

Australia's information and communications (ICT) market is the fourth largest in the Asia Pacific. Companies operating out of Australia have tariff-free access to the US market through a free trade agreement. New South Wales has the largest number of ICT specialist businesses in Australia, accounting for about 40 per cent of the nation's ICT employment and about 45 per cent of Australia's ICT equipment exports.

Sydney is the capital of the Australian ICT industry and a major digital media centre in the Asia Pacific. Most of the world's top ICT companies in Australia are based in Sydney, including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle-Peoplesoft, Sun Microsystems, SingTel-Optus, Hewlett Packard, CSC, BenQ, Panasonic and Samsung.

Sydney is also home to many internet data centres and telecommunications companies offering a range of services, including co-location, shared and dedicated hosting, data warehousing, disaster recovery and managed services.

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Finance and insurance

Finance and insurance is the fastest growing industry in New South Wales, recording growth at an average of about nine per cent a year in recent years.

The skilled workforce of the New South Wales financial sector services the domestic market and acts as a hub for the Asia Pacific.

Sydney is the location for 80 per cent of all authorised banks operating in Australia, reflecting its growing importance as a regional financial hub.

Sydney is the head office location of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Australian Stock Exchange, Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, Australian Institute of Risk Management and Australian Financial Markets Association.

Australia has a highly developed, sophisticated and well regulated insurance market. It is the 12th largest insurance market in the world and the fourth largest in the Asia Pacific.

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Manufacturing

Manufacturing is big business in New South Wales, accounting for about one third of Australia's production, turnover and employment. New South Wales offers many advantages including a strong design and engineering solutions focus, innovative research and development and a wealth of engineering and manufacturing skills.

New South Wales offers manufacturing companies a highly developed market and access to major national and global operators thus providing opportunities in the global supply chain. Areas of manufacturing expertise include aerospace, rail and transport, automotive, marine, precision manufacturing, medical devices and pharmaceutical.

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Agribusiness

New South Wales has quality "clean and green' produce. A varied range of soils and a topography and climate suited to diverse agricultural production have led to an abundant range of high quality produce in New South Wales.

The New South Wales food and beverage industry is the largest of all the States in Australia as well as New South Wales' largest manufacturing industry. There is potential for new investment in both agricultural production and food processing in New South Wales and for further growth in the export of processed and unprocessed food products to many countries. It has a highly diversified base, with particular strengths in flour, cereal and bakery products, meat, edible oils, confectionery, dairy and horticultural products, as well as wine.

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Business and skilled migration

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




Industry & Investment NSW
Sydney Australia