Entrepreneurship is primarily about understanding the parameters and working within them. Those who build businesses rarely possess the energy or inclination to fight against unfriendly governors. Once they are able to overcome the magnet of a “home bias” they simply relocate to where conditions are more favourable. Over the past century and a half, the US has been the greatest beneficiary of a system that appealed to those wanting to work their way to a better life. Economic historians believe immigrants added at least half a percentage point to the US’s long-term growth rate after its Civil War ended in 1865. Australia, faced with the challenge of a contracting resources sector, is introducing new laws to encourage entrepreneurs to emigrate Down Under. It’s a lead South Africa would do very well to consider. High unemployment cannot be tackled by creating more positions in the tax-consuming Public Sector. The only solution is via job-creating entrepreneurship. Making this rare breed feel welcome should be the first priority of any wealth creating strategy. As the Australians appear to have now recognised. Â – Alec Hogg
From Agence France-Presse
Australia will introduce a new entrepreneur visa and offer tax breaks for start-ups, the government said Monday, as it seeks to unleash an “ideas boom” and move the economy away from its dependence on mining.
Launching a signature Aus$1.1 billion (US$806 million) innovation agenda, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia needed a “dynamic, 21st century economy” underpinned by creativity.
“This is all about unleashing the ideas boom,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“Unlike a mining boom, it is a boom that can continue forever, it is limited only by our imagination.”
Australia has enjoyed more than 20 years of economic growth, but an unprecedented mining investment boom is now fading, commodity prices are dropping and government revenues are falling.
Turnbull, a tech-savvy former businessman who became prime minister in September after beating his conservative Liberal Party colleague Tony Abbott in an internal ballot, said innovation was critical to the next wave of prosperity.
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Australia lagged in terms of commercialising ideas, consistently ranking last or second last among OECD countries for business-research collaboration, he said, meaning a big cultural change was needed to turn things around.
“Our appetite for risk is lower than in comparable countries, which means Australian start-ups and early stage businesses often fail to attract capital to grow,” Turnbull said.
To help fix this, new tax breaks for early stage investors in start-ups will be offered, giving them a 20 percent non-refundable tax offset based on the size of their investment, as well as a capital gains tax exemption.
Insolvency laws, which currently focus on penalising and stigmatising business failure, will also be reformed.
“We understand that sometimes entrepreneurs will fail several times before they succeed -– and will usually learn more from failure than from success,” Treasurer Scott Morrison said.
Turnbull said there would be no cap placed on the number of new entrepreneur visas designed to attract innovative talent, while changes would also be made to retain high achieving foreign students.
“The more high-quality, effective, productive enterprising entrepreneurs we can attract, the better. Because they drive jobs,” he said.
School students will be encouraged to learn coding and computing while the government will also establish an Aus$200 million innovation fund at national science body CSIRO to co-invest in new spin-off firms.
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