21 September 2009

Australian economy success in the spotlight at New York talks

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is in New York for a series of talks promoting Australia as an ideal country to invest because the Australian economy has not fallen into recession.

Mr Rudd told The Australian newspaper that besides meeting world leaders he has scheduled several engagements with executives from major financial institutions and other big financial and corporate players.

"I'll be seeking to use this as an opportunity to promote Australia as a destination for investment, for now and for the long term," he said.

"We have a good story to tell, given the performance of the rest of the international economy in what has been a very difficult time."

Mr Rudd said he would be focusing on the fact that Australia was the only country out of the 33 OECD members that had experienced economic growth over the past 12 months.

Mr Rudd said he would also be pushing that Australia  has the second-lowest unemployment rate among the major developed countries, lowest debt and lowest deficit levels, as well as being the only country in the OECD not to have gone into recession.

"I think another point to emphasise with our friends and partners in the US business community, and the investment community here in New York, is the fact that of the nine remaining AA+ rated banks worldwide, four of those banks are Australian.

"So we have a strong economy - one that's doing better than most other countries around the world," he said.

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