WA joins drive to streamline assistance to export industries

28/6/95

The Western Australian Government today joined a national drive to streamline delivery of Government assistance to industries best-positioned to lift Australia's export trade.

Commerce and Trade Minister Hendy Cowan said that as a partner with the Commonwealth, WA would ensure thousands of small-to-medium enterprises could better access a vast range of assistance measures.

"The new partnership is called AusIndustry," Mr Cowan said at a Perth link-up with a national launch conducted in Sydney by Prime Minister Keating.

The Minister said more than $4 million would flow to WA businesses in the new financial year from joint Government programs.

"AusIndustry will be a single contact point for all business improvement services through a national hotline," he said.

"AusIndustry will use a team of client managers to help firms identify programs they need.

"This team in WA is engaged and co-ordinated by the State Department of Commerce and Trade.

"The department is marketing the entire set of business improvement programs."

AusIndustry is directed by a board with membership drawn mostly from the private sector.  It includes Mr Bruce Sutherland, chief executive officer of WA's Department of Commerce and Trade and Ms Jenni Ballantyne, director of the WA company Second Skin.

Speaking at the Sydney launch, Western Australian Senator Peter Cook, who is Federal Industry Minister, said AusIndustry was developed in response to business sector concerns that assistance measures were complicated, difficult to access, buried in red tape and not always oriented to private sector needs.

"AusIndustry heralds a complete overhaul and modernisation of the delivery of government business assistance," he said.

Mr Cowan said expert research in recent years had shown that:

·       information on government assistance programs could be improved;

·       programs designed to help develop competitive small to medium companies were not always easy to locate and -;

·       Government assistance was seen as too complex and not user-friendly.

"We in government have to eliminate these problems," he said.

"It is hard enough for firms to establish a foothold in international markets without facing the domestic hurdle of not knowing where to go to tap into business assistance."

The Minister stressed that governments were not telling industry how to run their businesses.

"But research shows that developing firms do often lack management skills," he said.

"The big range of enterprise improvement programs, for which Government funding support and advice is offered, aims to make firms more productive and globally competitive.

"Under the AusIndustry banner, these programs are not financial props to companies. They are part of the strategic planning and positioning of our most promising emerging businesses especially in the manufacturing and service sectors.

"AusIndustry offers information services, advice, referrals and a client management facility.

"It will break down artificial barriers between levels of government and within Government agencies."

Media contact: Peter Jackson 222-9595