The Australian Labor Party has supported the Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) push to export Australia's funds management industry.
"We have been calling on the Government to make greater efforts to facilitate and promote exports. Instead the Government has sat on its hands, happy to ride the resources boom, Shadow Trade and Regional Development Minister Simon Crean said.
Last week, IFSA released a policy paper that outlined initiatives that would make the funds management sector a more viable export industry.
Australia's service industries contribute over 73 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employ 80 per cent of the workforce. Yet the sector makes up only 22 per cent of exports, according to the IFSA policy paper, Policy options to increase Australia's export of funds management services.
"Labor agrees with IFSA that we need to do more to improve exports of services to provide support to the broader Australian economy. Since the superannuation guarantee was introduced by the Labor Government in 1992, funds under management have grown from $250 billion to $1 trillion. Australia can be a financial hub in Asia," Crean said.
At a Sydney conference last week, bank chiefs spoke out against Australia's tight regulatory regime, which is stifling the nation's private banking growth.
"I think it's unrealistic to think Australia can compete as a global hub. I think a precondition for a hub in private banking is a partnership between the government and the industry. I think that's lacking in Australia," Macquarie Private Bank head Guy Hedley said.
