The country that produces the best equipped talent pool to work in the global economy will receive the cream of the world's work.

Around the world we are seeing a change - economic growth is being accompanied by a growing role for services and knowledge-based industries.

In Australia, with unemployment at a record 33 year low, and predictions that skills shortages will run to half a million people by 2020, we will need to access high value, competitive skills from beyond our borders.

This year IBM released the findings of its Global CEO Study which surveys over 1300 CEOs worldwide. The CEOs interviewed from Australia and New Zealand highlighted people skills as the greatest external force impacting their business in the next three years.

We are also dealing with the emergence of the globally integrated enterprise which is allowing work to be done from anywhere, and more importantly, where the skills are available.

And the world is getting more competitive.  The globally integrated economy is going to increase competition particularly in services, which underpin our economy. And much of this competition will come from increasingly skilled labour forces in places like China and India.