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From Sagar Chakraverty, Opalesque Asia:

The Australian Financial Centre Forum's report (also known as The Johnson report, here) titled 'Australia as a Financial Centre - building on our strengths' was released on 15-Jan 2010. The report argued that while Australia has possibly the most efficient and competitive financial sector in the entire Asia-Pacific region, there is space for more opportunities in the export and import of financial services. Currently, the financial sector accounts directly for around 7.5% of the country's GDP. Also, the global market for Islamic financial services is expanding fast, and penetrating this market could mean a greater diversity of sources of capital available to Australian business and consumers.

This report comes after the findings of the World Economic Forum's second annual Financial Development Report, which ranked Australia second in the world as a global financial centre. This jump deserves applause as Australia was placed 11th in the 2008 ranking. The UK secured the first place, and the US was placed third in the 2009 ranking.

Chris Bowen of the Australian Labor party, who is now serving as the Minister for Financial services, Superannuation, Corporate Law and Human services, said that the Rudd Government had alr......................

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