This week I am attending the OECD World Forum on ‘the Future of Well-Being: Statistics, Knowledge and Policy’, as a guest of the OECD. This year was the sixth annual World Forum but the first Forum at which private sector…
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Several myths about the Australian workforce are being widely circulated of late and discussed as if they were ‘facts’. One of these has been that ‘casualisation’ (that is, the incidence or proportion of casual work) is increasing in Australia. Quite…
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Heaven is high, and the Emperor is far away This is my favourite Chinese saying. It’s particularly useful when trying to placate a frustrated Ai Group member who can’t understand why the import documents she submitted successfully to Customs in…
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Reflections on the 19th round of RCEP negotiations Even the most casual observer of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will recognise that there are member economies at very different stages of economic development. This is part of the challenge in…
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What happened to the dollar in July? The Australian dollar (AUD) has risen sharply against the US dollar (USD) during July 2017 (see chart 1). Indeed, the AUD is now nudging up to 80 US cents, for the first time…
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The US Government has introduced rules that will change the way all Australian Exporters send airfreight to the US. The rules will come into force on July 1 and will not be delayed and cannot be avoided. Currently, most of…
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Digital technology has revolutionised modern trade and the products and services that we are able to sell to the world. Blockchain Technology, Industrial Internet of Things (IOT) and electronic communication are all essential elements of a globally competitive industry. A…
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International competitiveness is hard to quantify. It means more than simply being cheapest or even having the best product. It requires companies to be customer focused, innovative, and agile. It means that companies should have access to infrastructure and information…
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Are you interested in checking out business opportunities in Iran? How could the Former Norwegian Prime Minister help you? In the aftermath of the Trump Administration’s travel ban, there were many individual stories of heartbreak and missed opportunities. One that…
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Australian manufacturing has staged a small but extremely welcome comeback in 2016, after suffering a sustained period of shrinkage since our most recent peak in 2008. This partial recovery has been evident across a number of key industry-wide metrics: Ai…
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