News

Issue No. 62 - December/January 2011

Main sectors slide, but SA will be fine

South Australia needs to build up high-wage, service-based industries to prosper, according to economics expert, Phil Ruthven, in Adelaide recently to address members of The CEO Institute.

Phil, the principal of IBISWorld, outlined the keys to business success in the 21st century as GDP is increasingly service-driven. He notes 2011 is the first year where spending on household ‘outsourcing’ of chores has surpassed total retail spending.

As a proportion of GDP, Phil notes Agriculture is ‘totally gone’ from modern economies, making up only 1.6% and 2% of the USA and Australian economies respectively.

He says a ‘love affair’ with manufacturing, notably the automotive industry which is “on its way out”, has held SA back.

“This is not the kiss of death (for manufacturing) but by God you have to be picky,” Phil says.

Education, he says, has low productivity growth and “needs a big shake up”. He praised the advent of a fourth unive...

The rest of this article is available to in-business subscribers.
If you are a subscriber, please log in - click here.

Established in 2001, in-business is South Australia's leading independent local business knowledge source. We offer subscribers:

• a high quality bi-monthly magazine
• password access to our complete archives online from Issue 1
• regular SNAPSHOTS eNewsletter
• optional listing in our magazine business services directory called 'the team'

in-business has become one of South Australia's best networking packages delivering readers untold business opportunities.

To subscribe click here, or to receive a free trial copy click here.