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Business Business Profile Much of Australia’s economic activity is centred on Melbourne, as it is home to many of the nation’s largest corporations, including BHP Billiton, Coles Myer, Telstra, National Australia Bank and Shell Australia. The city also provides headquarters or the R&D base for international companies such as Cadbury-Schweppes, BP, NEC, Orica, Ericsson and Kraft. In the CBD, smart Collins Street is the prime business address. Victoria has a workforce with one of the highest levels of education and technological literacy in the OECD. Melbourne’s excellent multilingual capabilities – over 30% of the population speak another language at home – also make it attractive to foreign companies. During 1999-2000, Victoria was the most profitable Australian location for local and international companies. Private business investment grew by 11.8% during 2001, over twice the national rate. Victoria is home to 40% of Australia’s pharmaceutical industry, nearly 60% of the automotive industry and 50% of the aerospace sector. The Australian head office and manufacturing operations of Toyota and Ford are Melbourne-based and General Motors has begun construction of its new A$700 million state-of-the-art V6 engine plant in Melbourne, also the home of its Holden headquarters. Australia is one of the leading users of information and communication technologies and most of the major international organisations operating in Australia have manufacturing or research activities in Melbourne, including IBM, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard, Nokia, Motorola, Philips, NEC, Fujitsu and Siemens. Asia-Pacific’s largest Internet service provider, Pacific Internet, also recently opened its Australian headquarters in Melbourne. Australia’s dairy industry is centred on Victoria and the state produces 13% of the global trade in manufactured dairy products – a Victorian cheese, the Jindi brie from Gippsland, was named best cheese in the world at the prestigious 2002 Wisconsin World Cheesemakers Contest. Victoria provides 46% of Australia’s horticultural production and has strong meat, cereal-based food, confectionery and wine industries. Campbells, Heinz, Coca-Cola, Cadbury-Schweppes, Kraft and Nestlé all manufacture and export food from Victoria. Melbourne is also Australia’s research capital, hosting 38% of total research and development undertaken by businesses nationally. In particular, Melbourne is an acknowledged world leader in biomedical and health research, attracting GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Monsanto, Aventis and Nufarm to manufacture in Victoria. In April 2001, unemployment in Melbourne was 6.3%, compared to a national rate of 6.8%. Business Etiquette Suits are a must when conducting business in well-dressed Melbourne and all appointments must be arranged in advance. Like much of Melbourne life, business is conducted over coffee. Breakfast meetings or drinks at a stylish bar are also favoured, although long business lunches are a thing of the past. Australian businesspeople are very approachable, quite informal and quick to use first names. Academic or professional titles do not impress them, nor do over-zealous sales presentations. Business cards are used. Normal business hours are 0830-1700 Monday to Friday, although many executives work longer hours. If invited to someone’s home, a bottle of wine as a gift will almost always be appreciated. |
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