Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, is fast becoming a world-class location with growing facilities and infrastructure and an excellent business and investment environment.

Over the past 12 months business investment in the city has grown by 51 percent and Western Australia’s domestic economy has grown at 14 percent, higher than China’s growth rate of 11.3 percent, and higher than Australia’s GDP growth of 2.3 percent. This is an extremely positive sign of business confidence for the future as both Perth, and even Australia, has not really shown up on the outsourcing radar because they are not being marketed enough.

However, Australia’s national inward investment agency, Invest Australia is attracting productive foreign direct investment into the country to support sustainable industry growth and development. In the past five years, the agency has helped a wide range of international businesses with potential investment in Australia of more than $44 billion.

Five things to do

Penguin Island Only 42 kilometers from the center of Perth, the island is home to a diverse array of wildlife and boasts breathtaking marine and coastal scenery, with the largest colony of little penguins on the West coast and probably Western Australia.

Fremantle Prison  The prison was built by convict labour in the 1850s, and transferred to the colonial government in 1886 for use as a gaol for locally-sentenced prisoners. Now re-opened as a historic site, it now houses a public museum, which is managed by the Government of Western Australia. Some tours include information about the existence of ghosts within the prison.

Kings Park and Botanic Garden  Officially opened on 1895, the park was originally called Perth Park and was renamed in 1901 to King’s Park. Besides a mixture of grassed parkland, botanical gardens and natural bushland, Kings Park contains the State War Memorial. The memorial is maintained by family members to Western Australian Service men and women who died in World War I and World War II.

WACA Ground  The Western Australian Cricket Association ground has been the 'home' of cricket in Western Australia since the early 1890s. The pitch at the WACA was regarded as one of the quickest and bounciest in the world.

The Pinnacles  Nambung National Park is home to the Pinnacles Desert. A series of eerie limestone formations, up to 4 meters tall, sporadically scattered over vast yellow, rippled sand dunes form the desert. A photographer's paradise, the Pinnacles Desert comes alive with wildflowers from August to October every year.

What works well for Perth is that it is ideally located as a regional base to service the growing economies and large populations of the Asia-Pacific Rim, with similar time zones and short travel times to many Asian countries. It has a multilingual and multicultural, and politically stable and secure environment.

Although analyst firm Gartner has pegged Australia as the number one offshoring destination for organizations seeking outsourced options for sensitive business information — thanks to its mature legal and financial systems, high standards of education and a stable economy. But, the question remains: Can Australia’s outsourcers maintain current productivity levels when companies are already struggling to deliver local projects on time and under budget? And therefore, the past two decades have seen local jobs shift to Asian countries, beginning with IT outsourcing and followed by back-office processing.

But interestingly, in a report commissioned by the Australian Federal Government, Perth is in a strong position to benefit from the “third wave” of international outsourcing comprising highly skilled analytical work.
Also, with cheaper office rents than Mumbai, India, and cheaper accountants than London, the U.K., Perth could reverse the trend of high-end analytical work flowing to these places.

Adding to it, Perth also boasts of a deep labor pool having accounting, actuarial and analytical skills, and its workforce is between 20 percent and 40 percent cheaper than the U.S.A. or the U.K, as mentioned in the same government report. The Western Australian city is also recognized as a key regional hub for the knowledge industries and is home to major research and development facilities. 

Q&A  

 
 
Michael Horton
General Manager, CSC Western Australia

With 850 employees in Western Australia, Perth is CSC’s one of the most buoyant markets today. Michael Horton, General Manager, CSC Western Australia spoke to Adyasha Sinha about the strengths and opportunities that Perth provides