United States investment in Australian manufacturing industry

Abstract

Private foreign investment has been of major import­ance in Australia's post-war industrial development. While it is impossible to compare what has actually happened in the Australian economy with what might have happened in the absence of a capital inflow, it seems clear that since 1945 private foreign investors have not only added substantially to the funds available for investment in the private sector, but have also provided access to much of the technical knowledge and managerial skill developed in the more industrially advanced countries of Europe and North America. The rapid growth of those sectors in which foreign capital and foreign skills are combined in fruitful harmony has been a vital force impelling growth throughout the economy.