Suchergebnisse

This report examines the small business sector in Australia, from the global financial crisis until 2012, and identifies weaknesses in the current policy applied by the Gillard government. In order to answer the question of how to improve the current economic policy that aims to facilitate the first steps of small business in Australia, the report uses cross-country policy comparison, with particular focus on the small business environment in France and Chile. Results of the analysis show that the most important problem that faces small businesses in Australia is the access to bank loans, tightened by the risk aversion of financial institutions. The Gillard government policy concerning the sector of small business has not had a significant impact yet: confidence in the sector is still low and loans are difficult to obtain for small business. However, a new project is being developed by the Minister of Small Business to ease the acceptation of asymmetric information by the banks: OZBIG. Further in the report are exposed solutions offered by OECD countries to ease the credit access by SMEs that could have a significant impact in Australia, if implemented. This report recommends the government of Australia to solve the problem of cash flow by creating operational systems of guarantee, prioritizing start-ups and innovative SMEs with high growth and improving the financial landscape of SMEs by develop a new bank credit system selection. The report also offers minors solutions including improving the communication of the government concerning its actions in the sector, concentrate investment on particular sectors and creating a more accurate database of the loan activity in the country. Further rigorous research is needed to forecast the impact of these solutions in the Australian context and their cost of implementation.