CACCI Profile - June 2011

ACCI Issues Its Latest Policy Blueprint on Services: The New Economic Paradigm
The Australia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) launched its latest Policy Blueprint on Services: The New Economic Paradigm on April 1, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. ACCI says the Blueprint is a watershed document given voice to the hundreds of thousands of mainly small and medium businesses in the service sector that are the new economy, yet historically the poor cousin in public policy. According to the ACCI, the Policy Blueprint on Services: The New Economic Paradigm is the most comprehensive services sector reform Blueprint yet developed by industry. By encouraging governments, policy makers and stakeholders to adopt policy settings that specially address the challenges confronting service enterprises, ACCI would like to help the service sector expand, maximize job creation and build wealth for the industry workers. The ACCI notes that Australian services sector has become the most substantial sector in the Australian economy a n d n o w d o m i n a t e s A u s t r a l i a s economic activity and job creation. Over the last three decades, services sector output and employment has outpaced many other sectors in the economy. As Australian economic and industrial policy may have been aligned more closely with the needs of the manufacturing sector, ACCI General Council has resolved that the development of an ACCI Services Blueprint needed to be one of ACCIs Strategic Policy priorities. In other words, ACCI recognizes the need that governments and regulators have to be confronted by the new knowledge and service based economy, the ACCI said. The ACCI Service Industries Blueprint. It focuses specially on six service industries for more detailed analysis: Construction services; Business services; Tourism and event services; Accommodation, restaurant and catering services; Distributive (wholesale and retail) trade services; and Higher education services. The ACCI Service Industries Blueprint can be accessed at www.acci. asn.au. Expressing CACCIs endorsement of Blueprint, CACCI Director-General

Dr. Webster Kiang noted that the past decade has certainly seen the growing importance of services in Asia, as indicated by the rising contribution of the service sector in the GDP and employment generation of many Asian countries. The growth of the services sector in Asia has been attributed to three major factors, namely, (1) restructuring of the economies towards higher levels of specialization fuelled by outsourcing of non-core activities, (2) reduction in the transaction costs due to advancement of information technology, and (3) opening up of many restricted sectors in many Asian countries. In addition, as the region increasingly consumes its own final products, intraregional trade in services also increases, Dr. Kiang added.