2009 update on Investment Survey

Survey methodology

August 2006

The survey was a cooperative effort between the diplomatic missions of EU Member States in Australia and the Delegation of the European Union. Some Member States ( Germany, France, and Sweden) already collected the same or similar information and so their existing data has been used rather than unnecessarily burdening their companies. Other Member States (Austria, Belgium, Greece and Spain) undertook the survey themselves, while the Delegation of the European Union undertook the survey on behalf of the remaining Member States.

The approach followed in the survey was to use the contact details of all companies registered with the Australian Investment and Securities Commission which had an association with an EU Member State. Questionnaires were then sent to all foreign companies in Australia with a place of origin in the EU and all Australian companies which declared their Ultimate Holding Companies to be in the EU, together with any other EU companies for which Member State missions knew of their presence in Australia and held their contact details. For those countries participating in the survey a little over 1,200 questionnaires were sent out in total, with an overall response rate of 13%.

To supplement the survey, and ensure coverage of all the larger companies, comparable information was used from the IBISWorld database of the top 2000 companies in Australia which includes 167 EU companies.

The resulting information was then aggregated up to national levels using the best estimate by each Member State mission of the total number of companies in Australia from their country. In grossing up the survey results the conservative assumption was used that all companies not covered by the survey or IBISWorld data have activities in Australia equivalent to a small or medium sized enterprise (i.e. for companies not covered, the survey average for each Member State excluded the data for the larger companies was used).

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For further information please contact:
John Tuckwell, Senior Adviser, Economic and Trade; Tel 02 6271 2734 ; Email: john.tuckwell@eeas.europa.eu

Media enquiries: Roger Camilleri, Senior Adviser, Media & Public Affairs ; Tel 02 6271 2744; Email: roger.camilleri@eeas.europa.eu

This page updated October 22, 2009