BEYOND ‘LIVEABILITY’, SECURING SYDNEY’S GLOBAL FUTURE

Chief Executive of the Australian Business Foundation, Narelle Kennedy, said if Sydney is to remain one of the best places to live, then it is vital Sydney becomes a more well-connected player in international economic and business decisions.

“Our research suggests that the global economic crisis will affect the operations of multinationals with cutbacks in Sydney and the Asia-Pacific, and simply being a ‘liveable’ city is not something Australia can rest upon,” Ms Kennedy said.

“Australian and New Zealand cities may be liveable, but the Foundation’s research shows that Sydney offices of multinationals are only moderate contributors in terms of decision-making; knowledge generation; management, product and service development for their global multinational parent.

These are the findings from the Australian Business Foundation’s recent study, “Global Connections – a study of multinational companies in Sydney”, which examined Sydney’s importance to multinational companies. The research is based on an assessment of survey data from 85 multinational companies based in Sydney, investigating the strategies, organisation and location decisions of multinational companies.

“There must be opportunities for greater engagement and collaborative activities between local organisations and Sydney multinationals, so that the Sydney offices are embedded more closely in a global web of enterprise, bringing new global and regional connections for Sydney.  

“The report also found that the Sydney offices are generally stand-alone local producers and implementers rather than regional or global innovators for their parent companies. Sydney offices of multinationals have little control or autonomy beyond their local operations. 

“Therefore it is increasingly important in the current economic downturn to cement Sydney and our other major cities as critical global hubs.

“Urgent action is needed to revitalise investment promotion initiatives and to ramp up connections and collaborations between Sydney operations of multinationals, their home locations and local organisations.  

“Sydney’s multinationals need to be better plugged into local and international business and knowledge networks, something that is not happening enough.

“Sydney and other Australian capital cities need to find ways to make Australia more valuable in global supply chains. It is great to have many ‘liveable cities’, but there has to be more to make Australia an indispensible source of know-how and successful business activity that is a long term magnet for multinationals,” Ms Kennedy concluded.