Many of us are well familiar with Australia as it has got a large number of students who come from different places to get educated here.? Furthermore Australia is a home for many businesses especially for the SMEs.? It is the 15th largest economy having 1 trillion USD GDP.
There plenty of stimulus that made the financial system of Australia strong.? It is also a significant exporter of energy, food and natural resources. The diversity in the natural resources attracted a high level of foreign investment. The sophistical Australian economy is an exporter of primary resources and importer of high end technology.? The demands for energy resources, metals as well as minerals have increased the chances of expansion in economic growth.
Having a large land area and some great history along with a small population, a few firms dominated in certain sectors. Though Australia has been integrated into the world economy but it generally remains at the financial and commercial center for the region.
The market entry strategy for Australia is quite simple.? You need to understand three important elements for making your entry successful. The first one understands the market, the second one is the selection of an optimal partner and the last one is providing support to the partner in the market.? If the person is familiar with the language and the business framework then even the cultural and market differences will not matter.? In order to make a successful business here, it is important to understand the Australian context for product, service, standards, competitors, sales, applications, regulations and channels.
Another important thing for ensuring success in the Australian market is establishing a local sales presence.? This calls for appointing a distributor or an agent.? These agents solicit the business for a foreign company. He just forwards the contract to the foreign company.
Like every country, Australia also has a commission that is responsible for administrating companies and securities law named as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).? It provides a system for the registration and regulation of the companies, securities and future markets.? The requirements for establishing a business and maintaining it are same for all and whether it is local or overseas companies, the same rules are applied to all.
Apart from this, Australia is also home to one of the most innovative and highly appreciated capital market and services industry including:
- Bond market: It is considered to be the third largest debt market in the Asia Pacific.
- Equity market: Based on the free float market capitalization, Australia is at the 8th largest and the 2nd largest country in the Asia Pacific having 1.2 trillion market capitalization.
- Funds management: Australia is known to be the largest pool of funds in the entire Asia Pacific region and the fourth largest in the world.
- Derivatives market: It is known to be the largest fixed income derivatives in the Asia Pacific.
- Financial development: Because of its leading financial systems and capital markets, Australia lies at the 5th rank in financial development out of the 57 countries.
- Foreign exchange market:? The Australian foreign market is known to be the 7th largest and the Australian dollar is considered to be the 5th most traded currencies.
Because of the strong economic and political conditions, Australia has become an attractive hub for making investments as many global investors along with multinational financial service providers are attracted to this country.
As compared to other foreign market, doing business in Australia is quite easy for many of the exporters.? However, there are certain cultural differences that can undermine the business relationships. Various forms of support are provided by the agents that include training, advertising, product warranty and promotion. As timely delivery of goods and services is important therefore it is not a problem in Australia at all because many of the freight forwarders have made their offices here.? With reliable shipping schedules reliable delivery is guaranteed.
Doing business in Australia is similar to that of the United States and Western Europe.? The natives here prefer paying attention to advance planning, follow ups, promptness and they are quite direct in the dealings of the business.? The people have used their first name for the business dealings and they use the business cards for the exchange of information. They do not schedule the business functions on weekends.
Australia has got 3 time zones- the eastern zone, Central zone and the Western zone.? The office hours start from 9 am to 5 pm and weekends are off.? The major shops in the cities are open on Saturday and Sunday.? Banks are open from 9am to 4pm from Monday to Friday and the ATM service is open24/7.
Annual vacation time in Australia starts from December to January along with the Christmas holidays and the school summer vacations.? During this time, it gets hard to schedule any business meeting or ascertain the contracts.