As the various state capital cities debate which is the most live-able in the world, one thing is for certain – Australia is the place to be in international business terms. A recent survey of 7500 business leaders from 24 counties agreed that Australia stands out as an island of calm amid the global economic storm as it had been only slightly affected and would be among the first to recover. Interestingly, after Australia the business people cited the remainder of the best countries as China, India, Hong Kong, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Malaysia as the top ten.

As the Australian economy slowly emerges from the worst of the recession, reducing the unemployment level will become our biggest problem. Current projections among business groups are that around a quarter of this nation’s big companies expect to shed permanent staff during the next 12 months.

According to a survey on where Australians want to put surplus funds, most would like to increase their minimum superannuation contributions by up to 5 percent. It was carried out by a special research body set up by the super industry which revealed to all those in the survey that in 8 of the past 10 years industry funds have had better returns than retail funds because of various differences such as asset allocation.

Nearly all finance industry operators have reacted positively to the news from the Budget that the Investment Allowance has been increased to 50 percent for small business. It rates right up there with the ways businesses are taking advantage and moving to buy new cars.

And there are two other interesting finance service news items from us:

• Up to $100k no doc processing for dealer purchase on cars less than 3 years old, for approved business applicants.
• Health care professionals package is now up to $100k in no doc processing, for approved applicants.

One of Australia’s biggest minerals customers, Japan, appears to be at last coming out of recession as its vital exports of manufactured goods are rising. And in a rare piece of positive news, the airline industry association IATA says the worst may be over and the months of double digit decline have ended with business finally picking up in most major markets.