In Asia, governments have played an important role in driving the adoption of modern biotechnology techniques. Australia has world-class research, good infrastructure, a competitive labour market and is a politically stable country. Australia has the opportunity to emulate the growth experienced in North America and Europe. In addition there are many other companies in human therapeutics, food, veterinary medicine, agriculture and other sectors, which use some biotechnology techniques as part of their production and manufacture. Although biotechnology industries offer excellent prospects for wealth generation, the costs and risks associated with commercialisation remain very high and the time frames can be long.
Biotechnology is substantially a research driven technology requiring highly skilled labour.
This is a consequence of the difficulty of raising capital to develop the research to useable products in Australia. Modifications to the current CGT are seen as critical to the encouragement of the Venture Capital industry in Australia. Venture Capital funds are acknowledged as the main reason for the exceptionally strong growth of the US economy since the start of this decade. An internationally competitive CGT is needed in Australia in order to drive the growth based on innovation. The biotechnology industry believes that the tax system should encourage patient, high-risk venture capital for technology sectors such as biotechnology using a a sliding scale model where CGT is reduced as the time of holding of assets increase.