About ASR

ASR is the voice of professional services, aiming to secure Australia’s place in the global economy

Background

ASR is the only dedicated whole-of-services industry organisation and is part of the Global Services Coalition (GSC). Currently, services do not register sufficiently on Australia’s public policy radar. There has been no national research effort, and services do not feature in any of the Government’s national competitiveness strategies. Creating a national services competitiveness strategy is essential as we move away from a resource focused economy. With up to 1.5 billion people moving into Asia’s middle class over the next 15 years, Australia must ensure it is in the best position to take advantage of the opportunities at our doorstep.

Purpose

Services employ 85% of Australians, represent 78% of industry value-add, yet comprise only 20% of Australia’s total exports. Our purpose is to address these gaps in understanding and realise opportunities for the benefit of our members, professional service industries, SMEs, and micro-multinationals. We believe this is vitally important for all aspects of Australia’s economic, environmental, social and cultural future.

Priorities

We seek to develop the Australian professional services sector and facilitate market opportunities for our stakeholders.
We see services productivity, competitiveness, skills innovation and investment into human capital infrastructure pivotal to the success of professional services.
We support and ensure efficient regulatory settings for the services sector. Australia’s success is built on this.
We create new international services trade opportunities, investment channels and lead national research efforts to improve statistical data bases.

Capabilities

Business intelligence Research Policy formulation Digital transformation solutions

Industry representation Networking access Policy discussions & GSC involvement

Industries

We represent the broadest possible range of services sectors. These include but are not limited to:

Financial Services Professional Services Health Service Providers

Export Education Services Environmental Services Energy Services

Logistics Tourism Information Technology

Telecommunications Transport Standards and Conformance

Audio-visual Media & Entertainment Cultural & Other Business Services

Objectives

We stimulate research promote international and domestic policy reform and identify regulatory obstacles to enhance international service competitiveness. We advocate and represent the interests of services industries to government building a strong public profile for the services sector. We focus on issues including:

Trade Policy Industry Development Competition Policy

Investment Policy Immigration Policy Taxation Policy Digital Innovation

We contribute to strategies for negotiating services trade and investment issues in various bodies and international agreements:

World Trade Organisation (WTO) Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

Free Trade Agreements Other bilateral & regional agreements