Trade and investment

Home >
Invest in NSW >
About NSW >
Trade and investment

Trade and investment

This section provides information on:

major export commodities and markets
services exports
foreign investment by country and industry
business investment
location of domestic and regional headquarters of multinational corporations
size of the Australian share market and futures/options market relative to other Asia Pacific locations
international business visitors to NSW and Sydney
direct international air links.

New South Wales has extensive links to international markets. In 2009-10, the State's exports of goods and services were valued at $52 billion, with around two-thirds of the State’s merchandise goods exported to Asia.

New South Wales dominates Australia's services exports. The State provides 39% of all services exports from Australia and is the nation’s premier tourist destination, largest exporter of professional, financial, computer and other business services, as well as a centre for international learning and business.

New South Wales is well positioned to benefit from the liberalisation of bilateral goods and services trade. Australia has free trade agreements with the United States, Thailand, Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and the 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Australia is negotiating and considering agreements with other countries including Japan, China, Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia, India and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Australia was ranked among the 10 most attractive destinations in the world for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the last three surveys of transnational corporations in the World Investments Prospects Survey conducted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The total stock of foreign investment in Australia was almost $2 trillion as at December 2010. Over the past five years, the world's investment in Australia has grown by 59%, with foreign direct investment expanding by the same proportion. New South Wales is home to 45% of the top 500 companies in Australia, reflecting the State's advantages as a place to do business.

Sydney is an important regional financial hub in the Asia Pacific. The Australian Securities Exchange, based in Sydney, is the first major market to open each day and is the 12th largest in the world by market capitalisation, or the sixth largest in terms of float or freely available share capital. Australia has the fourth largest managed investment market in the world, which has attracted many global funds management companies to Sydney.