Table of Contents
Introduction
Australia is a vast beautiful country and a continent comprising of some other smaller Islands. The landscape of the country is so diverse that it has beaches, deserts, tropical forests and a variety of plant species and wildlife. Australia is the world’s 6th biggest country in terms of size and area.
Canberra is the capital of the country, and Sydney is her most populated city. The indigenous Australian has inhabited the continent for approximately over 65000 years. However, Dutch were earliest outlanders who came to Australia in the 17th century, and the British came in the year 1770. On January 01, 1901, all the fifth colonies of Australia united and established the commonwealth. Her system of parliamentary government is democracy and constitutional monarchy. Queen Elizabeth 2nd is the current monarch, and Scott Morrison is the prime minister of the country.
Other details of the country we’ll include in the SWOT Analysis is the internal and external environment (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).
Here is the SWOT Analysis of Australia
Australia’s Strengths
Strong Australian Economy
The nominal GDP of Australia in 2020 is 1.375 trillion US dollars and that ranks the world’s 13th largest economies. Nominal Per capita of the country is 52952 US dollars, it’s 10th highest in the world. These figures show us the strength of Australians economy. High GDP means that the domestic industry of the country is booming, which means more employment opportunities and people are earning and happy. When people have jobs and happy, there’ll be low poverty and less crime rate. Automatically, per capita would be high.
Financial Security
Being an active member of the Commonwealth of Nations, Australia also provides a service of financial. The service is so efficient that it has dominated countries like the US, Germany, Japan, and Canada.
Diversity
According to an estimate, 29% of the country’s population is comprised of immigrants that make Australia the world’s 8th highest immigrants population country. It shows how tolerant and open-minded Australian society and people are that they love to share the same standard of life with the people of poor countries.
In terms of landscape, Australia has a diverse mountain range, desert at the center, and tropical rainforest. In terms of wildlife, she’s also home to many rare species of birds and animals that you can only find it there. Not anywhere else, like Kangaroos, Koala, etc.
Political stability
Ever since the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901; the country has managed to maintain a balance between constitutional monarchy and parliamentary liberal democracy. No military coup and less administrative corruption mean that the political institution of the country is stable. Since Australia is an island, therefore, it has no land border conflict and disputes with other countries.
Membership
Australia is a member of world organizations like the UN, Commonwealth of Nation, G20, ANZUS, World Trade Organization, ASEAN Plus Six Mechanism, Pacific Island Forum, OECD, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The US provides her the military and intelligence support to the country.
Technically Advanced
According to an estimate, there’s been a significant increase in mobile device users in recent years because of development in the country’s tech industry. Progress in the tech industry is changing the minds and behavior, and it would also impact the financial and other services of the country.
Australia’s Weaknesses
Expensive to Live
Ever since Australia allowed her citizens to invest in the houses and property ownership, the rent cost of living has increased to a great proportion. Now, much of the country’s capital is invested in the properties and houses. It means that you can’t use the same stuck capital in any other business venture.
The investment in real estate has caused the rent prices to rise. This increment in prices is attracting more people to dump their capital in the property.
Flaw Education System
The government has been updating either the curriculum or the courses for students. As a result, people are learning and getting engineering degrees in the automobile and car industry. The fact of the matter is that the car industry is dying because of the rise of new electric vehicles. But the Australian education system is still teaching her students the obsolete skills that aren’t useful anymore.
Contractual Job Types
The rise of the freelancing industry has badly affected the regular beneficial jobs. Now, the jobs are limited to the ‘gigs’ and the work only. Therefore, the employers prefer to hire cheap contractual freelancers rather than keeping a regular payroll of employees, because it would be very costly for the employers. Consequently, young Australians who are looking for secure jobs are badly affected.
Fossil Fuels Exports
Australian economy is still exporting fossil fuels products like oil, gas, coal, and iron. If any of the poor or third world country’s economy is exporting fossil fuel products, then it would be acceptable. But in case of expensive first world country’s economy is exporting such products, it doesn’t make sense at all.
Secondly, as we all know that the world is moving towards the safer renewable sources of energy. Many other developed countries have planned to stop the usage of fossil fuels because it’s not for the environment. Therefore, Australia should also move towards renewable sources of energy.
Australia’s Opportunities
Growth of SME
When we look at the country’s developing and growing regions, then western Sydney comes to light. Where people with a team of approximately 10 members have their small businesses, the growing diverse population in the region prefers to work for themselves to face the current challenges.
The growth and diversity are giving rise to many small businesses in the area. Trade industry has a great potential for the investor to have their attention. Not only there, the whole region is so diverse and growing.
According to an estimate, 60% of the Australian workforce is related to the SMEs (small and medium enterprises). But the government policies aren’t helpful and supportive to the SMEs. If the government makes the policies flexible, then it would attract a lot of young innovative and creative entrepreneurs into this industry.
Australia’s Threats
Coal & Mining Industry
Australians coal and mining industry has been proliferating for decades. Consequently, profit in this industry has attracted and gain a lot of investment, and other country’s resources. As we know that the world is moving towards renewable sources of energy, if there’s anything happens relevant to the mining industry, then it would baldy hurt her economy.
Even the mining industry makes a significant contribution to the country’s overall GDP. If the country keeps relying and attaching to this industry, then it would be very disappointing for her economy especially under the current circumstances the way it’s dying.
Removing Encryption
If we say that the Australian government is afraid of the technological revolution, then it won’t be wrong. It’s because the government is planning to remove the encryption from all sorts of data.
Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks
If the government removes the encryption, then all the personal text messages, then it would vulnerable to all types of cyberattacks. The government says that removing the encryption would be good for the people. Only the government would have access to such information. If the government database system is compromised, then thieves and criminals would have easy access to information of ordinary people.
Conclusion: SWOT Analysis of Australia
Coal, mining, and fossil fuel industry is dying. Australian government should find renewable sources of energy for the future. She should also launch flexible policies for small and medium enterprises for the growth of small businesses. That would not only diversify the risk, but it would also create many opportunities.
Photo by Rijan Hamidovic
