This year’s survey covered 74 countries and canvassed company executives to rate various countries across 10 categories of risk including sovereign risk, civil unrest, natural disasters and labour relations.

In the overall list of 74 countries, Australia was broken down into individual states and territories, with South Australia ranked second, the Northern Territory fifth, New South Wales sixth, Tasmania seventh, Queensland 10th and Victoria and Western Australia 11th and 12th respectively.

Queensland’s showing was due to poorer ratings for green tape and land claims.

“While Queensland wasn’t far in front of Western Australia in this year’s survey, the Bligh government’s recent increase in activities promoting exploration and geo-scientific research could see it recover substantially in years to come,” said AMEC chief executive Dr Justin Walawski.

Broken down by country, Australia’s poorest ratings were for green tape and land claims.

The United States rated poorest for green tape and red tape.

New Zealand ranked 19th, Ukraine 27th, Mozambique 35th and China came in at 37th with a high risk for red tape.

Mongolia came in at number 42, India 48, Russia 51 and Indonesia 61. Zimbabwe received the wooden spoon.