By GREG ANSLEY
SYDNEY - A New Zealand company will set up a major plant in Sydney after a big Australian global investment drive designed to take advantage of the Olympics.
Adhesive Prints' new consumer label plant at Botany is among a rush of investment that has pumped $A400 million ($526 million) into the Australian economy under the federal Government's Australia Open For Business programme.
Trade Minister Mark Vaile said yesterday that the investment had come through the associated Business Club Australia, a networking group established on the internet ahead of the Games.
It is now operating out of a Tasmanian-built 750-tonne, wave-piercing catamaran moored in Darling Harbour.
"Our early estimates predict Business Club Australia alone will inject more than $A1 billion into the Australian economy - a figure we're already on target to meet," Mr Vaile said.
In all, the Olympics are expected to pump an extra $A6.5 billion into the economy for the 12 years to 2006, with further gains expected to spin off from Australian technology, administration and business participation in the 2004 Athens Games.
The Open For Business programme was set up two years ago to promote sports-related expertise and capabilities through the Games facilities, to bring high-level business leaders to the country, and to push investment based on the exposure provided by the Olympics.
Financial Services and Regulation Minister Joe Hockey said Australia had always suffered from the perception that it was a distant, resource-based economy rather than a growing regional financial centre.
It had been difficult to get on the map as an Asia-Pacific financial centre, Mr Hockey said.
Most investors drifted towards Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
But the perceptions of Sydney and Australia were going to change after the Olympics.
The Business Club already has a membership of 14,000 - almost two-thirds of it senior executives of large overseas companies - and is growing at the rate of about 100 a day.
Throughout the Olympics countries and companies will be hosting events on the catamaran - New Zealand will be holding its session this morning - in addition to online deal-making.
Sectors targeted by the Australian trade promotion agency Austrade include marine industries, education, sport, agribusiness, mining technology and information and communication technology.
In addition to its trade and investment drive, Australia is also pushing its bid to become what it describes as an Asian Wall St, building on its position as the region's largest futures exchange and second-largest equities market.
Mr Hockey said Australia was able to use time zones to place itself in the trading cycle between New York and London and to attract key investors by a combination of high technology, universities, relatively low costs, a diverse language pool and quality of life.
He said that globally, distance no longer mattered and people and companies could make quality-of-life decisions which would carry more weight.
Olympic push lures NZ label firm to Sydney
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