There are hundreds of reasons why Sydney Australia is arguably the best place in the world to live and operate (or invest in) a business, particularly in finance and technology. Below are are just some of the highlights.

Once you have seen just how special Sydney is you might also like to see why we think you should choose our firm on the Why Cooper Sydney page.

Skilled and Educated Multi-Cultural Workforce

• Sydney is the regional headquarters to more than 500 global corporations operating in the Asia Pacific region.
  
• Sydney has one of the most skilled workforces in the world.
• According to UNESCO, Australia had a greater proportion of residents undertaking tertiary study per 100,000 people - 72% of the relevant age group. This is more than the United States, most Asian countries and European countries such as France, the United Kingdom and Germany. Notably, the level of education participation in Sydney is even higher than the Australian national average.
• There are five universities within the Sydney Metropolitan area, three of which - the University of Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney and the University of New South Wales - are all world class institutions located close to the city Central Business District (CBD).
• Australia uses primarily UK English spelling and is still a Member of the Commonwealth but increasingly applies US English spelling, particularly in the (large) technology industry.

Business & Tourist Visitor Benefits

• Sydney's amenity is reflected in its selection as the "World's Best City" for several years in a row by the top travel magazines in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
• In terms of "quality of life" indicators, the IMD World Competitiveness Report placed Australia 3^rd globally out of 49 countries, ahead of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Asia.
• Sydney houses 7 of Australia's top ten tourist attractions.
• The United Nations indicated that in the period 1990-98, Australia moved from 12^th to 2nd place in the Human Development Index, ahead of the Netherlands, France, Finland, Denmark and Austria.
• Sydney offers the political stability and corporate security to create an excellent climate for global business as well as the amenity to attract and maintain a highly skilled workforce. 
• Australia ranks 4th globally in terms of the Minimal Corruption Perception Index produced by Transparency International.
• Chinese New Year in Sydney is acknowledged by the Chinese government as the largest outside China.

National Headquarters

• Sydney accounts for more than one-quarter (25%) of Australia's total economic activity.
• Sydney is headquarters to Australia's main financial institutions, the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange.
• More than 90 commercial and merchant banks are headquartered in the CBD.
• Of the nation's top 100 companies, 60% are headquartered in greater Sydney, most within the CBD itself.
• Two thirds of Australia's banking and finance industry business, almost three-quarters of financial services and nearly half of the top 500 companies in Australia (and New Zealand) are located in Sydney. 
• Sydney has more than twice the international flight departures and two and half times the departures to Asia per week than Melbourne.

Regional Headquarters & Technology Leader

• IT&T companies with regional headquarters in Sydney include IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Compaq, Philips, SAP, Novell, AT&T, AAPT, Vodafone and Optus (Singtel).
• In the recent past, Royal Bank of Canada, Western Union Financial Services, Mastercard International and Deutsche Asset Management have relocated their regional headquarters to Sydney.
• Sydney is regional headquarters to around 500 global corporations operating in the Asia Pacific region. This represents more than 60% of the national total.
• Just under 60% of these global corporations are based in the United States, 15% in the United Kingdom and a further 5% each in Germany and Canada.
• Significantly, one third (33%) are in the IT industry.
• Multinationals to have made Sydney their base for their Asia Pacific headquarters include American Express, British Aerospace, Coca-Cola Amatil, SITA, Krone, State Street Bank, Unilever and H.J. Heinz.
• Many major vendors outside the top 500 are represented in Sydney because it is the natural leader in the region and an acknowledged innovator and home to early adopters of technology so it is often used as a global testing ground for new products.
  

Business Cost Advantages

• Sydney's business costs are highly competitive. 
  
• Executive and professional salaries are lower than those in OECD countries as well as in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.
• Rent for a prime office space in Sydney is one-quarter that of Tokyo, less than half that of London and significantly less than a host of cities including Hong Kong, Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin, Taipei and San Francisco.

Technology Skills

• Australia has the 7th highest per capita rate of personal computer ownership in the world, behind the United States.
• In terms of Internet usage, Australia ranked 10^th in the world, behind the United States, Finland, Norway and Iceland.
• Over the past 10-15 years, only five industrial countries - United States, Canada, Finland, Spain and Sweden - have matched Australia's growth in export share.
• In terms of existing office stock, Sydney ranks among the top 15 world cities, with its Central Business District (CBD) comprising 5 million square metres.

A Global Address

• Sydney's strategic geographical location enables corporations to reach their potential by operating 24-hours a day.
• Due to its particular geographical longitude, Sydney is able to integrate its "working" time zone with that of Europe and North America.
• Around 500 international flights depart from Sydney each week and the city is serviced by over 40 international airlines.
• Sydney is one of the most multicultural and multilingual cities in the world, with people from more than 180 nations, speaking 140 languages.
• Nearly one-quarter of Sydney residents speak a language other than English at home

Sydney Trivia

• It is a little known fact that Sydney is older than many other great world cities including San Francisco, Washington, Los Angeles, Singapore, Toronto and Johannesburg.
• Sydney staged the world's first "movie" projection in November 1894, a good 12-months before the Lumiere Brothers in Paris. Screened in a converted shop on Pitt Street, the 35mm film ran at 40 images per second and was projected through a machine known as a kinetoscope. In the first five weeks of showing, there were 22,000 moviegoers - each paying a shilling each.
• In 1915, Sydney became the first place in the world to appoint female police officers.
• The world's first milk-bar opened in Martin Place in 1933, offering "milkshakes" for fourpence.
• Sydney's Australian Museum, founded in 1827, houses the most extensive natural history and anthropological collections in the Southern Hemisphere.

More on Global Sydney can be found here.