New small business centre contracts circulated

2/12/05
New draft contracts have been circulated to the prospective management committees of each of Western Australia's 26 small business centres.
Small Business Minister John D'Orazio said the new draft contracts were part of a restructuring of small business support which would see more than $3million invested in the Small Business Centre Network next year, including a 24 per cent increase in annual funding.
Mr D'Orazio said the new network would build on the success of the State's business enterprise centres.
"The Small Business Centre Network will help create new jobs and opportunities throughout WA," he said.
"New contracts, along with additional resources, will help the centres provide better quality services to small businesses and people interested in establishing new businesses throughout their service areas.
"The network's purpose will remain to increase the diversity and number of viable small businesses, improve enterprise performance and increase employment and local investment in the communities each centre serves."
The Minister said that requirements of the new contracts included:

• management committees which were broadly representative of the areas they served;
• preparation of 12-month service plans to outline how services would be delivered;
• annual reporting of service provision in terms of client and stakeholder contacts and of performance in terms of business start-ups and job creation; and
• annual forecasting of service demand, with which performance could be compared.

Mr D'Orazio said each management committee had until December 6 to comment on the draft contract, with the new arrangements coming into operation on January 1, 2006.
He said that in developing the contracts, the Small Business Development Corporation had consulted widely with people and organisations interested in the network.
Minister's office: 9213 7150