Giant mining firm BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX: BHP) confirmed on Friday reports that the company is set to move financial services staff from its Adelaide office to either offshore locations in Asian cities or Perth and Brisbane stations in order to achieve smoother business relations with its Asian operations.

The company said that the planned relocations should be initiated soon and would be wrapped up over the next 18 months as it clarified that BHP's Adelaide staff would be given preference to apply for the relocated division jobs.

BHP Billiton added that its present Adelaide staff numbers of 370 would be in fact boosted in the next two years as more jobs would be required in the office's various sections, thereby reaffirming Adelaide's role as a significant nerve centre for the company due to its long-time association with the city and its proximity to the Olympic Dam mine.

However, opposition MP David Pisoni raised alarm on the latest BHP restructuring moves, arguing that the company's decision would lead to concerns on South Australia's attractiveness to big business operations.

Mr Pisoni noted that the state presently delivers the highest tax revenues for Australia as he added that BHP Billiton's decision seemed to give the notice that South Australia is now poised to pay the price for its overly dependence on the resource industry.

On his part, Resources Minister Paul Holloway countered that the government could not afford to second guess each time BHP decided to institute internal changes as he stressed that focus should be trained on the fact that more jobs would be created over the course of time.

Mr Holloway underscored that the state employs an attractive regime to entice further investment of the mining industry in South Australia, as he specified that "in many areas of taxation in fact this state is the lowest-taxed. For example we're the only state that has a concessional royalty for the first few years of a mine."

The resource minister stressed that such measures have so far ensured the state's successful efforts to attract big investments as he expressed confidence that "we've been successful and we'll continue to be successful."