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About Sydney and NSW > Economic and Business Climate

Business Efficiency

Australia has a strong, stable and internationally competitive business sector. The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2007 rated Australia's business efficiency as the seventh best in the world.

Business efficiency is one of the four main factors the yearbook uses to assess a country's overall competitiveness. The business efficiency factor is designed to measure the "extent to which enterprises are performing in an innovative, profitable and responsible manner". It takes into account productivity and efficiency, labour costs and characteristics, the performance and global integration of the financial sector, management practices, and general attitudes and values relevant to competitiveness.

Australia was ranked highly on many of the survey criteria used to evaluate business efficiency. The nationals and expatriates asked to assess Australia rated its corporate sector as the second best governed in the world, with strong balance sheets and good access to finance. Australian companies are equipped to compete internationally.


Business Efficiency, Global Rankings, 2007

Country National culture (1) Ethical practices (2) Corporate debt (3) Corporate boards (4) Stock markets (5) Worker motivation (6) Flexibility and adaptability (7) Image abroard (8) Overall ranking on business efficiency (9)
Hong Kong SAR 2 17 12 5 1 7 4 6 1
Singapore 3 11 3 4 7 6 13 2 4
United States 33 10 15 27 3 18 10 30 6
Australia 8 3 4 2 6 11 6 8 7
Malaysia 13 20 25 7 23 15 17 17 15
Taiwan 16 25 33 34 21 13 11 28 17
New Zealand 10 2 11 8 30 16 8 13 18
India 13 30 21 18 11 27 9 18 19
United Kingdom 16 18 19 23 13 25 27 22 22
Germany 37 15 18 44 19 14 48 16 25
China 20 28 51 12 35 32 35 23 26
Japan 49 24 30 32 20 10 49 24 27
Thailand 25 31 35 38 36 28 33 35 34
Korea 55 41 28 54 31 33 50 32 38
Philippines 9 39 47 30 42 38 14 53 39
France 52 26 34 45 24 46 55 42 42
Indonesia 39 48 46 40 37 45 45 48 45


Footnotes:
Rankings out of 61 national and regional economies.
1 National culture is open to foreign ideas.
2 Ethical practices are implemented in companies.
3 Corporate debt does not restrain the ability of enterprises to compete.
4 Corporate boards supervise the management of companies effectively.
5 Stock markets provide adequate financing to companies.
6 Worker motivation is high in your economy.
7 Flexibility and adaptability of people in your economy are high when faced with new challenges.
8 The image of your country encourages business development.
9 Based on 68 separate criteria included in the Business Efficiency Competitiveness Factor.

Source: The World Competitiveness Yearbook, 2007, IMD, Switzerland, www.imd.ch/wcy.