Presented by: VIKRANT CHAUHAN

AUSTRALIA
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area It is the world's 13th-largest economy and has the world's fifth-highest per capita income. Australia is a constitutional monarchy with a federal division of powers. It uses a parliamentary system of government with Queen Elizabeth II at its apex as the Queen of Australia.

Geography of Australia
It encompasses a wide variety of biogeographic regions being the world's smallest continent but the sixth-largest country in the world. The geography of the country is extremely diverse, ranging from the snow capped mountains of the Australian Alps and Tasmania to large deserts, tropical and temperate forests. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the French dependency of New Caledonia to the east, and New Zealand to the southeast.

Largest populated areas in Australia (June 2010 Australian Bureau of Statistics estimate) Rank
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

City Name
Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Perth Adelaide

State
NSW VIC QLD WA SA QLD / NSW NSW ACT / NSW NSW

Pop.
4,575,532 4,077,036 2,043,185 1,696,065 1,203,186 591,473 546,788 410,419 292,190

Rank
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

City Nam e
Greater Hob art Geelong Townsville Cairns Toowoomba Darwin Launceston AlburyWodonga Ballarat

State
TAS VIC QLD QLD QLD NT TAS NSW / VIC VIC

Pop.
214,705 178,650 172,316 150,920 131,258 127,532 106,153 106,052 96,097

Gold CoastTweed
Newcastle CanberraQueanbeyan Wollongong

10

Sunshine Coast

QLD

251,081

20

Bendigo

VIC

91,713

 Australia consists of six states, two major mainland territories, and other minor territories. The states are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. The two major mainland territories are the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. By far the largest part of Australia is arid or semi-arid. A total of 18% of Australia's mainland is desert. Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil. The northern part of the country has a tropical climate: part is tropical rainforests, part grasslands, and part desert. Rainfall is highly variable, with frequent droughts lasting several seasons thought to be caused in part by the El NioSouthern Oscillation.

Australia is a constitutional monarchy with a federal division of powers. It uses a parliamentary system of government with Queen Elizabeth II at its apex as the Queen of Australia, a role that is distinct from her position as monarch of the other Commonwealth realms. The most notable exercise of the Governor-General's reserve powers outside a Prime Minister's request was the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in the constitutional crisis of 1975. The federal government is separated into three branches: The legislature: the bicameral Parliament, defined in section 1 of the constitution as comprising the Queen, the Senate, and the House of Representatives; The executive: the Federal Executive Council, in practice the Governor-General as advised by the Prime Minister and Ministers of State; The judiciary: the High Court of Australia and other federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the Governor-General on advice of the Council.

 Australia has six states New South Wales Queensland South Australia Tasmania Victoria Western Australia two major mainland territories the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT)

Over recent decades, Australia's foreign relations have been driven by a close association with the United States through the ANZUS pact, and by a desire to develop relationships with Asia and the Pacific, particularly through ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum. In 2005 Australia secured an inaugural seat at the East Asia Summit following its accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, and in 2011 attended the Sixth East Asia Summit in Indonesia. Australia is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, in which the Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings provide the main forum for co-operation.

Australian Economy
Australias economy is a developed, modern market economy with a GDP equivalent to $1 trillion USD, which is very nearly the same amount in Australian Dollars according to the current exchange rate. Australia normally ranks within the top 20 of the countries with the largest national economy by nominal GDP, so this nation represents about 1.7% of the world economy. Australia is also very highly ranked in terms of being a large importer, a large exporter and a country within which it is relatively easy to do business. While there has always been a slightly comical rivalry between Australia and New Zealand akin to that between Britain and France, the ties are extremely close geographically and psychologically. It is therefore little wonder that Australia and New Zealand have also decided to integrate their economies with one another to form an Australasian Single Economic Market by 2015.

A key to Australias economic successes stems from the countrys emphasis on exporting commodities during the rise in commodities prices since 2000. Australian economy is dominated by its service sector, which represents around 68% of the Australian GDP. Australia is rich in natural resources, it is a major exporter of agricultural products, especially wheat and wool, minerals such as iron-ore and gold as well as energy in the forms of liquefied natural gas and coal. The largest export markets of Australia are Japan, China, South Korea, India and the United States. Australia does have a large account deficit, which it has had for the past fifty years and appears to continue going up.

 Australia has strong export commodities, it lacks a successful exportoriented manufacturing industry Additionally, there are high levels of net foreign debt owed by the private sector, but all of these negatives turned around would be improvements to the country rather than some horrifying mess such as what the United States is having to tackle. The fact remains that Australia has one of the lowest levels of government debt as a proportion of GDP among developed countries. Australias taxation system also assists in generating revenue for the economy, and it is levied at federal, state and local government levels.

International agencies, treaties, and agreements

One of the drafters of the UN Charter, Australia has given firm support to the United Nations and its specialized agencies. It was a member of the Security Council in 198687, a member of the Economic and Social Council in 198689, and a member of the UN Human Rights Commission in 199496. Australia takes a prominent part in many other UN activities, including peacekeeping, disarmament negotiations, and narcotics control. Australia also is active in meetings of the Commonwealth Heads of Government and the South Pacific Forum, and has been a leader in the Cairns Group countries pressing for agricultural trade reform in the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations and in the APEC forum. In September 1999, acting under a UN Security Council mandate, Australia led an international coalition to restore order in East Timor upon Indonesia's withdrawal from that territory. Security treaties Australia is party to the Australia, New Zealand, United States security treaty. It has also been a party of the Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom force .

Trade
Overall Australia's largest trading partners are the United States, Japan, China, and the United Kingdom. Australia currently has bilateral Free Trade Agreements with New Zealand, the United States, Thailand and Singapore as of 2007. As well as this, Australia is in the process undertaking studies on Free Trade Agreements with ASEAN, China, Chile, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia. Australia-Chile Free Trade Agreement Australia New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement

ECONOMY OVERVIEW 2012

REGION OECD High income INCOME CATEGORY High income POPULATION 22,327,200 GNI PER CAPITA (US$) 43,740.00 DOING BUSINESS 2012 RANK 15 DOING BUSINESS 2011 RANK 11 CHANGE IN RANK -4

TOPIC RANKINGS DB 2012 Rank

Starting a Business
Dealing with Construction Permits Getting Electricity Registering Property Getting Credit Protecting Investors Paying Taxes Trading Across Borders

DB 2011 Rank
2 2

Change in Rank
No change

42

43

37 38 8 65 53 30

36 35 8 60 49 29 No change

-1 -3

-5 -4 -1

Enforcing Contracts Resolving Insolvency

17 17

16 12

-1 -5

A sophisticated hub for the Asia-Pacific

Australia has a sophisticated financial services sector and is ideally positioned as a center for the Asia-Pacific region. Finance and insurance is the fourth largest sector in Australias economy, generating 8.1 per cent or A$81 billion of real gross value added in 2007-08. This contribution is up from 6.5 per cent two decades ago and its expansion has also aided growth in related sectors such as communications, property and business services. Highly developed financial markets make Australia one of the major centers of capital markets activity in Asia and Australias large and mature financial services sector has assets of more than A$4.3 trillion, which is equivalent to almost four times GDP. Underpinning much of Australias financial services strength is the growth of its investment funds sector. Australia has one of the largest pools of contestable funds under management globally, valued at about A$1.3 trillion (US$850 billion).

Finance Investors in Australia can also look to Australias financial services industry for investment financing. In October 2008, the World Economic Forum assessed Australia as having the third best regulation of securities exchanges and the fourth soundest banking system in the world (Source: World Economic Forum, The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-09). Financial sector regulation is recognized as world best practice, and provides a transparent and secure base for expansion within the region.

Investments
Australia offers global financial services institutions opportunities in a rapidly expanding domestic market and an ideal location for servicing markets in the Asian time zone. The Australian Government is committed to building upon Australias strong regulatory environment and financial sector expertise, and firmly establishing Australia as a financial Centre in the region. The government is taking a number of initiatives to support this objective. The government has passed legislation which will progressively reduce the withholding tax rate on specified distributions from managed funds from 30 per cent to 7.5 per cent by 2010-2011, making it one of the most competitive in the world.

Major role players

Australia is much changed by immigration, particularly from Asia, and economic reform. The result has been a decade and a half of uninterrupted economic growth with low inflation and low unemployment, and a restructuring of the economy with a relative lack of social disruption by the standards of industrialized economies. Australia still benefits from the wealth on and under its land and seas. Natural resources and energy companies remain well represented on Australia's list of 40 biggest companies. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, two mining giants, occupy second and fourth places in the list. The top ten is rounded out by banks, financial services firms, a telecoms group and food retailers. The full 40 spans multinationals in a range of industries, from Fosters, synonymous with beer but whose wine business is now its larger part, to Qantas Airways to Macquarie Bank, which has developed an investment banking niche in largescale infrastructure and is the world's largest operator of private toll roads.