The government should speed up the visa process for skilled workers who are seeking to move to jobs and property in Australia, the Business Council of Australia (BCA) has suggested.
According to the BCA, the Gillard government should introduce an enterprise migration agreement for big projects in the country.
Recently, the government arranged to cut the processing times for certain visas so that skilled migrants could enter the country to help with the Queensland floods reconstruction programme.
The BCA wants this to be extended so that the wider economy can benefit from all that skilled migrants have to offer.
A pre-budget submission from the BCA stated: "The ongoing demand for labour and skills cannot be underestimated and tight labour markets and emerging skills shortages will present major challenges for policymakers."
Earlier this month, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that the number of people in employment in Australia increased by 21,600 from December 2010 to January of this year.
Posted by Ravin Chatlani