Jobs and Export Program

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) (14:18): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: The 2016 international trade and business mission program has just been completed, and the 2017 program is being released today. It is a jobs and export program because its principal objective is to boost exports, create jobs and build new opportunities for the state. The success of the 2016 program and the government's strategy of regularly scheduling overseas missions has been endorsed by major business and industry organisations.

South Australia's cooperative arrangement with the Australian government's trade commission for exporters, Austrade, has been a cornerstone of our success. I thank the outgoing head of Austrade, Bruce Gosper, and congratulate him and the Austrade team on their efforts and also him personally on his appointment as Australia's High Commissioner to Singapore.

The aim of this government's trade and investment activity is to ensure that South Australia is internationally engaged and outward looking. Official data shows our strategies are working. Approximately 320 companies have been assisted during these missions, including 119 to China, 61 to India, 81 to South-East Asia and 18 to North Asia. A special defence-focused mission to Europe in October included 23 key South Australian defence-related companies, each given unprecedented access to the highest levels of international prime contractors and government organisations.

In these past 10 months, the outbound trade mission program delivered around 1,500 new business connections for participating South Australian companies and over 650 new export leads, with a combined estimated value of $300 million. Earlier this month, the latest national and state accounts showed that South Australian gross state product was the third highest of the states, behind New South Wales and Victoria. Within those account figures, domestic spending grew 1.1 per cent in the year, while total GSP (measure of economic output) grew 1.9 per cent. The difference between these two figures reflects the export contribution to GSP growth.

Official Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that, in volume terms, South Australia's exports of goods grew 11.2 per cent between 2014-15 and 2015-16, and exports of services 12 per cent. Both were significantly better figures than the national performance of 6.4 per cent and 8 per cent up, respectively. Since this jobs and exports program began, we have secured new direct flights into Adelaide by Qatar and China Southern—I thank the Minister for Tourism for the important role he has played in that—creating further cargo space for exporters. The number of small business exporters has increased by 14 per cent in the last year.

Our international engagement program is achieved at a total cost to government of around $6.22 million. This compares with $20 million by Victoria and $33 million spent by Trade and Investment Queensland. We get better value for our expenditure by having a focused, scheduled program of missions, or as one senior Austrade official recently told me, our strategy is 'best in class'. A foundation of our success has been the involvement of the Premier and a minister to lead missions. This guarantees access in-country and support from Austrade and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Our international engagement and trade mission strategy is a key success of this government. The government's challenge now is to build on that success by adding programs for business that improve the conversion rate from engagement to contracts for delivery of goods and services.

To top off our successful year, in partnership with Austrade, the government hosted the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank in Adelaide for the International Aid Projects Business Opportunities Seminar, which I had the pleasure of opening. This was the first time the seminar had been to Adelaide, and it gave 60 people and businesses an understanding of the process and opportunities for winning work with multilateral banks.

The government has today released the proposed calendar for outbound jobs and business missions for 2017. It prioritises China, Europe and India—of course, South-East Asia and other regions are also important—while providing thorough support to the many South Australian companies doing business in North Asia, South-East Asia, MENA and the US. I encourage all South Australian businesses ready for export, or considering such a move, to take part. We have turned around South Australia's international engagement approach. We are supporting 65,000 jobs and we are growing this number with every step into new markets.

I conclude by commending the work of government agencies, including the Department of State Development, Primary Industries and Regions, StudyAdelaide, Health Industries SA, Investment Attraction SA, Defence SA, Arts SA, the South Australian Tourism Commission, local government bodies and the many other agencies of government that have participated in our overseas trade missions and encouraged stakeholders to do so, and who have supported the inbound trade missions. The 2017 calendar will be available from 2.30pm today on www.statedevelopment.sa.gov.au/investment/business-missions.