South Australia will target businesses interstate, hoping to lure them across the border on the back of budget commitments to not increase or impose new taxes.
The state's cheaper housing and better commute times for workers will also be highlighted in a bid to improve the state's economic complexity.
Victoria will be the first state in SA's sights with a campaign already being planned to convince companies to move some or all of their workforce.
"The cost of doing business here is cheaper than Victoria. In fact, it's cheaper than anywhere else on the mainland," Treasurer Stephen Mullighan said on Friday, the day after delivering his second budget.
"We're really looking forward to getting out in front of the Victorian business community and making it obvious that this is the perfect place in the country to be running a business.
"It's not just cheaper for the businesses, it's better for the workers as well."
Premier Peter Malinauskas said the government understood it was not easy for companies to relocate, but the state's competitive tax regime would help.
"We're very proud of the fact we're competitive. We're going to tell our story to the rest of the country," the premier said.
In its recent budget, Victoria announced a plan to cut some insurance costs for small businesses but hit bigger companies with a 10-year COVID-19 debt levy to help pay back its record borrowing during the pandemic.
Large businesses with a national payroll above $10 million a year will pay extra payroll tax.
In further spruiking its own budget, the SA government defended a decision not to extend tax breaks to those first-home buyers looking to purchase an existing property.
The government moved to eliminate stamp duty for first-time buyers, but they must build or purchase a new home or take ownership of vacant land.
Together with an existing grant, it could save some buyers about $44,000.
Mr Malinauskas said extending the savings to existing homes would simply fuel property prices.
"We don't want a situation where we provide assistance to first-home buyers that doesn't actually play out in practice because it inflates the market," he said.
"So calibrating the policy towards new builds means more supply which doesn't just mean a better outcome for the new home buyer, but also for the market as a whole."
Thursday's budget forecast SA's finances to return to a $250m surplus in the next financial year despite allocating $474m for housing assistance, an extra $2.3 billion to health and $471m for cost-of-living relief.
The cost-of-living cash includes $254m for energy rebates to 420,000 households along with $44m over five years to index government concessions in line with inflation.
Extra health spending includes $1.3b over five years to cater for extra demand on the public hospital system and $567m to cover the ongoing cost of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The budget revealed a $249m deficit for 2022/23, in sharp contrast to the $233m surplus forecast last year.
The deterioration was blamed on higher health costs, lower GST grant revenue and the $100m cost of assisting people affected by the River Murray floods.
