The Australian economy will face a severe drop in business sentiment that could last years unless the Australian Government takes immediate action to stimulate funding lost as a result of significant falls in migration.
Executive Chairman Atlas Advisors Australia, Guy Hedley said the Australian Government could take immediate action to plug gaps in anticipated lost business capital as a result of COVID-19 related falls in migration, by prioritising its restructure of the Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP).
The Australian Government is undertaking a consultation process into reform of the BIIP including revamping investment thresholds and types to maximise the economic benefits to the Australian economy.
Mr Hedley said the government’s objectives could be effectively achieved by redesigning incentives to encourage a higher proportion of high net worth migrant investors to apply to the Significant Investor Visa, Investor Visa and Premium Investor Visa.
“These investors have a far greater capacity and can inject more capital into the Australian economy to assist our recovery,” Mr Hedley said.
“Increasing the proportion of high net worth migrant investors could also counterbalance the impact of falling overall immigration numbers while boosting employment and productivity and funding new innovation and industries.”
Mr Hedley said the current cap on the total number of BIIP places and the freeze on the processing of applications was thwarting millions of dollars of investment at a critical time for the economy.
In 2019-20 the BIIP was capped at 6,862 places, which makes up under six per cent of the total Skilled Migration stream of 108,682 migrants and just 4 per cent of Australia’s total 160,000 migrants.
“BIIP applications were supposed to reopen in July but have remained closed despite the clear economic benefits it could immediately bring,” Mr Hedley said.
“As a result, Australia risks losing millions of dollars of investment to other countries that are increasing their incentives to better compete in today’s hungry international market for investment.”
