TradeStart

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (14:21): My question is to the Minister for Investment and Trade. Can the minister advise the house whether targets for assisting local businesses through the TradeStart program have been reached?

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Minister for Investment and Trade, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:22): I thank the member for Light for his question. There are a lot of small businesses in his constituency. The TradeStart program that the government supervises sets out to assist small to medium enterprises in their international business endeavours. The program uses the combined resources of Austrade and the South Australian government's international engagement trade and immigration team based at the Department of State Development, and they do it well.

Numbers just in reveal that 52 companies were supported in the 2015-16 financial year. Those assisted companies have achieved $49,716,000 worth of export sales and 16 new distribution agreements. Our TradeStart network is now managing an active client list of over 660 companies, up by 100 on the previous year. More than 60 of those are new clients, being first time exporters. The work of the TradeStart team is interwoven with the outstanding efforts of the state government's international business missions program. This integration in our service offering is especially powerful. 2015-16 has seen the biggest year of trade mission activity in many years as we embrace the opportunities of new global markets.

I informed the house earlier this year that the success of the missions has been profound in China, India and South-East Asia. That has been matched by inbound missions from those countries and regions, as well as an almost continuous team in international delegations seeking opportunities to invest in South Australia. Earlier this week, a visiting group of Shandong county mayors left Adelaide after a very successful two weeks in this state. Once again, we have a number of new friends with whom to do business.

In a related area, numbers have also just settled for Immigration SA for the full financial year, with 2,439 skilled and 264 business migrants nominated for 2015-16. This delivers on two economic priority No. 9 targets, and for the business target, one year ahead of time. It's no coincidence then that the latest economic briefing report by the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies shows that the state's export performance is on the up and up, a point made a moment ago by the Treasurer. The economists at the University of South Australia report that, and I quote, 'South Australia's export performance has shown a welcome improvement over the last year.' Our performance in the March 2016 quarter, year on year, was up 17 per cent compared with a national rise of only 7.6 per cent. I congratulate the businesses that have taken these steps to expand their business horizons.

I also congratulate the hardworking team in the Department of State Development who have worked tirelessly to deliver a first-class program of inbound and outbound trade missions and for the follow-up work they undertake, which is creating jobs for South Australians across the state—country and city. The government's economic priorities continue to help to transform the economy, to build new and lasting opportunities and to put more people in jobs they can enjoy.