Australia’s ability to weather the global downturn has enhanced its bid to become Asia’s financial hub, observers said, after a report ranked its market ahead of those of Singapore and Hong Kong.
The World Economic Forum ranked Australia second in its annual survey of financial systems and capital markets earlier this month, behind Britain but ahead of the US.
The forum found that while major markets had been acutely hit by the global financial crisis, Australia had showed particular strength, even among the better performing Asian economies.
ASIAN HUB
The ranking was welcome news for the center-left Labor government of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd which has been pushing for the country’s financial services sector to become an Asian hub, despite the limitations of distance.
“In terms of making Australia into a financial services hub, we see this financial crisis as an opportunity,” Financial Services Minister Chris Bowen said following the release of the survey.
“For years to come, the world’s investors will be looking to see who got through this crisis the best: which system of prudential regulation worked? Which financial institutions got through this crisis the best? Which nation survived the global financial crisis?” he asked.
SHOCKS
“And, in Australia, we are in a very strong position place to argue that it’s us — that our real economy, our financial sector have withstood the shocks of the last two years better than any other,” he said.
Bowen said Australia’s equity market was the eighth largest in the world while the country had the biggest pool of funds under management in Asia.
Meanwhile Australia is the only major Western nation to have avoided a recession in the worldwide slump, posting growth of 0.6 percent in the three months to June — the best in the developed world.
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