Australia’s world ranking for biotechnology innovation jumped from seventh to fourth on Scientific American’s latest ‘Worldview’ scorecard. The publication’s scorecard provides a balanced assessment of biotechnology innovation around the world and indicated that Australia’s biotech market is undergoing a resurgence.

The new Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement (JAEPA), signed on 8 July 2014, will strengthen economic ties between the two nations. Japan is Australia’s third largest direct foreign investor with A$130 million worth of investment stock in Australia in 2013.

Wilcox Industries’ manufacturing and assembly facility in Victoria will be a joint venture with its Melbourne-based distributor and partner, Aquaterro – a leading supplier of law enforcement and defence equipment in Victoria.

A new wearable pressure sensor has been developed which could be used to monitor people’s health at anytime and anywhere. Researchers from Monash University’s Departments of Chemical Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, produced the new sensor by sandwiching ultrathin gold nanowire-impregnated tissue paper between two polymer sheets.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has grown its Australian service locations to Melbourne. The expanded company will roll out Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery Web service that offers both businesses and developers an easy way to distribute content with low latency and high data transfer speeds.

The Victorian Government’s investment agency has created 20,000 jobs since December 2010 reaching its target six months earlier than predicted. The jobs were created as a result of the Office of State Development attracting A$8 billion worth of assisted investment.

Global ratings agency, Moody’s, has reaffirmed Australia’s AAA rating and stable outlook, consistent with recent assessments by Fitch and Standard & Poor’s. Australia’s sovereign credit rating is based on the nation’s highly resilient economy, high level of government financial strength and low level of event risk.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has reaffirmed Australia's triple-A credit rating and stable economic outlook, stating that the sovereign credit ratings on Australia benefit from the country's strong institutional settings, its wealthy and resilient economy, and a high degree of monetary and fiscal policy flexibility. “These factors provide Australia with a strong ability to absorb large economic and financial shocks, as was demonstrated during the global recession in 2009,” S&P said.

Australia remains a top 10 global destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) for a third straight year after attracting US$50 billion in foreign direct investment in 2013, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) World Investment Report 2014. Over the three years to 2013, FDI flows to Australia rose nearly 55 per cent to US$171 billion from US$110 billion over the previous three years. This impressive growth has expanded Australia’s share of global FDI inflows to 3.8 per cent in 2011-13 from 2.5 per cent in 2008-10. In contrast, developed economies’ share of world FDI inflows fell to 44 per cent in 2011-13 from 53 per cent in 2008-10.

Singapore’s Fatfish Internet Group will open a new office in Melbourne to help boost its business in the Australasian region. Founded in 2011, Fatfish invests its own funds and money from the Singapore government in IT start-up companies and those in growth stage.

Australia has achieved its highest ever ranking in the 2014 Global Innovation Index (GII). The GII 2014 surveyed 143 economies around the world, using 81 indicators to gauge both their innovation capabilities and measurable results.

Former US President Bill Clinton has told delegates at the 20th International AIDS Conference, AIDS 2014 in Melbourne, that finding more economically efficient ways to respond to HIV is vital to saving lives and preventing the spread of the virus. Mr Clinton’s speech was made to over 2,000 people at one of the most eagerly anticipated sessions at the AIDS 2014 conference in Melbourne.

New Zealand-based hydraulic equipment specialist, Transport Hydraulic Solutions (THS), has opened a large manufacturing facility in the Melbourne northern suburb of Campbellfield (26.5 km north of the city centre). “A growing number of Melbourne clients are located around this area, and for those who are based further away, our office is right near the freeway where the Western Ring Road and Hume Highway intersect,” said Managing Director of THS, Brenden Lyons.

Fleet management service provider, TR Fleet, recently launched TR Fleet Australia – the parent company’s first venture outside the UK. The Melbourne-based manufacturing business will offer a range of services in Australia and New Zealand, including a risk management tool to help employers comply with 2015 changes to workplace health and safety regulations.

Malaria is a devastating disease, affecting 200 million people worldwide and causing more than 600 000 deaths each year. In the past decade, great inroads have been made in reducing the number of infections, primarily through the implementation of insecticide-laced bed nets, and also reducing the death rate with combination therapies. However the emergence of drug-resistant malaria is rendering these therapies less effective, and there is an urgent need to develop novel therapies to cure malaria.

Indian learning solutions company, Dexler, has opened its Australian headquarters in Melbourne. Dexler Education (Australia) is expected to create 25 new skilled jobs in Melbourne following its 2014 acquisition of Online Learning Australia which had clients including AMP, ANZ, BHP Billiton, Bluescope Steel, Coles, Myer, NAB, Target, Telstra and Westpac.

Australia’s fastest-growing city, Melbourne, has again been recognised as the best city in the world to live, topping the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) 2014 Global Liveability Index for the fourth year in a row.

Victoria will host an unprecedented number of international sporting, arts, cultural and trade events between 9 January and 29 March 2015 as part of the 80 Days of Melbourne initiative. A business-hosting component of the initiative is designed to attract high profile, senior international business leaders to Melbourne to secure international investment and jobs for Victoria.

Leading global consulting, technology and professional services company, Capgemini, has opened its new Melbourne Global Delivery Centre and Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud services Lab. The French multinational operates in 44 countries around the world and offers a range of integrated services in the business sector.

Rohlig Australia will open a new branch office in the Melbourne western suburb of Truganina in mid 2015. The new Melbourne base for the international logistics company will be a modern 8,730sqm facility that includes space for a large warehouse and an open plan office.

The Victorian Government is calling for Expressions of Interest to develop Federation Square East – an iconic site in the heart of Melbourne. Global developers are invited to respond to the EOI which will be officially released to the market on Monday 15 September 2014, presenting an exciting opportunity to create a vibrant, mixed use development that may incorporate commercial components — including shops, bars and even accommodation.

Australia’s premier business organisation dedicated to promoting investment and trade with China will be the first bilateral business chamber to be part of the Victorian Coalition Government’s new International Chamber House (ICH). The Australia China Business Council (ACBC) will move its head office from Sydney to Melbourne to be part of ICH, which is set to open later this year in Melbourne’s city centre.

Melbourne’s dynamic environment for business has been reaffirmed by the Global Financial Centres Index 16 (report) which highlights Melbourne’s position amidst the Global Financial Centres. Melbourne is ranked sixth in the Asia-Pacific, with Sydney fifth - the top six centres all dropped in rating. Melbourne ranked 24th, which is one rating point difference between Melbourne and Sydney - an improvement of 11 points and a rank improvement of 13. Sydney, ranked 23rd, dropped eight rating points, but maintained its rank.

Aegis Services Australia has announced it will expand its business processing outsourcing operations in Victoria, creating 550 new jobs over the next two years. Aegis is a global outsourcing and technology company. The expansion will mean a doubling of the company’s existing local workforce and a substantial investment in training and up-skilling of employees. The company’s announcement underscores Victoria's strong reputation as a destination for global investment and business services centre.

The Victorian Government has launched Australia's first web tool specifically designed to help Victorian communities locate mining and exploration activities in their regions quickly and easily. The Mining Licences Near Me web tool ensures greater transparency for communities regarding industry activity in their region, both onshore and offshore, including minerals, gas and quarries.

The Australian Government has advised that it will expand and improve the Significant Investor Visa (SIV) program to leverage and better direct foreign investment. The program will be reformed to encourage more high net worth individuals to make Australia home and will contribute to a strong and competitive economic environment.

The expression of interest for the Ballarat West Employment Zone (BWEZ) has officially opened. BWEZ is the Ballarat region’s engine room for jobs and economic growth over the next 20 years. Located just over an hour north-west from the Melbourne city centre, Ballarat has fantastic connections to road, rail, ports and airports and the region is home to a large, skilled and stable workforce. With an increasing population of 100,000, Ballarat is one of the largest inland cities in Australia and serves as a key access point to the other regional centres in Northern and Western Victoria.

Japanese food production company, Kaiteki Fresh has announced a new state-of-the-art hydroponic facility in Bunyip, one hour east of Melbourne. The multi-million dollar investment will be the first facility of its kind outside of Asia, and will create 40 new local jobs. Kaiteki Fresh Australia, a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation, is a global leader in food production and technology.

Australia’s manufacturing sector has been given a boost with the opening of Australia’s largest additive manufacturing hub and a new world-class research facility in Melbourne. The new 3D printing additive manufacturing plant produces parts and devices for the mining, defence, bio-medical, construction, aerospace and automotive industries, in a more cost-effective way than traditional methods.

The Fu Wah International Group will establish its Australian headquarters in Melbourne, bringing 20 jobs to Victoria. A high-end real-estate development and commercial property management group based in China, the company recently took ownership of the iconic Melbourne Park Hyatt Hotel and is exploring other investment opportunities in Victoria's property and hotel sector.

Hong Kong-based independent hotel company the Hind Group is to establish its new Australian headquarters in Melbourne, creating 10 new jobs. The Hind Group is one of Hong Kong's most successful independent hotel and serviced apartment operators. It owns and manages two hotel brands, Ovolo Hotels and Naumi Hotels and also runs two food and beverage businesses, Café O in Hong Kong and Rang Mahal in Singapore.

Underutilised rail yards on the edge of Melbourne’s city centre are set to be transformed into the newest inner-city suburb - E-Gate. The 20 hectare site is equivalent in size to five Melbourne City blocks and will be developed into a new integrated community providing residential, retail, commercial and community facilities.

Indian company Ray Business Technologies (Raybiztech) has chosen Melbourne as its Australian headquarters. The company plans to create 30 new highly skilled local Information and Communications Technology (ICT) jobs over the next two years. Headquartered in Hyderabad, India, with offices in the USA and UK, Raybiztech delivers cloud, mobility, big data and social media solutions to its enterprise clients around the world, in the sectors of finance, healthcare, manufacturing, media, leisure and utilities.

Global technology supplier Finmeccanica – Selex ES will establish its Australian Naval Communications headquarters in Melbourne, creating 80 manufacturing jobs by 2019. Finmeccanica - Selex ES works across the international defence, security, aerospace, naval and transport sectors.

The Victorian Government has secured the right for Melbourne to continue to host the Australian leg of the world’s largest digital games festival, the Penny Arcade Expo Australia (PAX Aus), for the next five years until 2019.

An additional round of veski innovation fellowships – a prestigious Victorian program to attract outstanding global leaders in science and research to Victoria – is actively seeking applications from outstanding women in science and research.

UK packaging company LINPAC has chosen Melbourne as its Australian headquarters. The A$22 million investment will create 72 manufacturing jobs at the new headquarters in the suburb of Truganina in Melbourne’s West, and allow the company to increase its food packaging manufacturing capacity. Operating in 37 countries around the world, LINPAC is a global leader in the production of primary fresh food packaging and food service solutions.

Global food company, the Kerry Group, has announced that it will establish its new centre for excellence for bakery products in Melbourne, creating 118 new jobs. The A$13.7 million investment by the company in the Western Melbourne suburb of Altona (18 km from the Melbourne city centre) will be used to purchase state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, and increase their research and development capacity.

Japanese-based pharmaceutical company Eisai has announced it will open its Australian headquarters in Melbourne to provide a platform to market its portfolio of epilepsy and oncology products. The company ranks in the top 25 pharmaceutical companies in the world by revenue, and employs over 10,000 people worldwide.

Balluff Leuze has invested in a custom-built automation centre in Bayswater, located 40 minutes east of Melbourne’s city centre, as part of its continued Australian expansion plans. The German company, which specialises in technically innovative products for the Automation industry has been working in Australia for 15 years and is considered a leader in sensor technology. They also build a range of safety products that are used in the Victorian manufacturing sector.

Recent research lead by a Melbourne research institute has found that people who carry a particular type of gene have natural resistance against typhoid fever. The Nossal Institute of Global Health at the University of Melbourne conducted the study in collaboration with the Genome Institute of Singapore and Oxford University Clinical Research Unites in Vietnam and Nepal. The research, which is the first large-scale one of its kind, investigated the human natural gene responses to typhoid and associated infectious diseases.

Professor Sharon Lewin, the local co-chair of this year’s 20th International AIDS Conference, and internationally recognised HIV cure researcher, has been named Melburnian of the Year in an awards ceremony held on 15 November.

Australia and China have signed an historic free-trade agreement (FTA) which will increase opportunities for foreign direct investment in Victoria. The deal, which is suggested to be worth A$18 billion to Australia’s economy, was announced after almost a decade of negotiations between the nations. The agreement will increase the threshold at which private companies attract scrutiny by the Foreign Investment Review Board from A$247 million to A$1 billion. This will allow corporations to more easily take advantage of the competitive and dynamic business environment that Melbourne has to offer.

The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), in collaboration with NICTA (National ICT Australia) have announced the opening of a joint data analytics lab in Victoria. The lab will be based at RMIT University’s School of Computer Science & Information (CSIT) in Melbourne. NICTA is Australia’s largest ICT organisation, and its Machine Learning Research Group has been independently rated amongst the top five groups of its kind in the world. In a collaboration valued at over A$1 million, NICTA will combine its expertise with RMIT University’s CSIT, which is widely recognised as a leader in data and information management.

For the second year in a row, the Penny Arcade Expo Australia (PAX Aus) was held in Melbourne from 31 October 2014 to 2 November 2014. It opened to the news that Melbourne had secured the right to continue to host the event for the next five years, a huge coup for Victoria and for all Australian digital gaming fans. The announcement meant that Melbourne would host the iconic event, which attracts the world’s biggest and most influential digital games developers, publishers, and enthusiastic players, until at least 2019.

The International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC) will take place in May 2019, and will see approximately 1,000 delegates visit Melbourne to discuss, collaborate and present on the latest scientific achievements in particle acceleration. Melbourne’s winning bid was presented in Korea, and was a direct result of collaboration between the Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) and the Australian Synchrotron, a particle acceleration research facility located in Melbourne.

AEREON, a global leader in combustion, vapour recovery and pollution-control technologies has announced the opening of a new 1250 square metre (13,000 square feet) operations facility in Melbourne. The large facility will create flares, thermal oxidizers and gas compression units that adhere to Australian code requirements in the oil and gas industries. Local fabrication of the materials will allow AEREON to better improve their customer experience and ensure consistency and quality in their product range.

Melbourne has been recognised as the top Major City in Human Capital and Lifestyle, according to the fDi Intelligence Global Cities of The Future 14/15 study. Cities in the study were categorised according to population and, as a Major City, Melbourne was awarded the top position in cities with populations less than 10 million. As winner of the Human Capital and Lifestyle category, Melbourne scored high results in categories such as; literacy rate, education expenditure, health, quality of life, percentage of population as labour force, number of students and numerous other indicators.