Aussie pitches for 20,000 US workers

Australia is aiming to lure 20,000 US workers with a week-long marketing effort in Los Angeles to support a trend of US companies using the country as a base for Asia-Pacific operations.

Australia has reaped US$250 billion ($368.73 billion) in foreign direct investment in the past four years - a 150 per cent increase - with a third of that coming from US companies.

Garry Draffin, chief executive of Invest Australia, said the country was looking for skilled workers to support an economy that had expanded for the past 15 years and was increasingly seen as a stepping-stone to Asia.

He said Australia had been ranked No 1 in the world for intellectual property protection by IMD's 2005 World Competitiveness Yearbook as well as having governance standards similar to those in the US and Europe.

The Australian Government is looking for companies that want to establish headquarters or research and development centres for their Asian operations and for highly skilled workers for the biotechnology, life sciences, technology and financial services industries.

- REUTERS