Ministerial Statement

South-East Asia Trade Mission

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) (14:02): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: Last week, I led the second of three state government business missions to South-East Asia planned for 2017. I was accompanied by around 60 delegates looking to do business with their counterparts in Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar. We were also joined by Sir Angus Houston, our Special Envoy for Trade and Investment. Our South-East Asia Engagement Strategy is now two years old and has been instrumental in supporting our work to increase our profile and presence in the region.

South Australia has a long history with Singapore and close ties with Singapore's leaders, including the President himself, Dr Tony Tan, an alumnus of the University of Adelaide. South Australia's total trade with ASEAN was $A3.6 billion in 2016. South Australia and Singapore enjoy a robust two-way trade relationship, with merchandise trade valued at $A587 million in 2016. The object of everything we do is to help our exporters to sell their goods and services overseas, thus creating jobs and investment at home.

The mission was planned to coincide with Adelaide University's Australia-Singapore Relationship Conference, which I attended and where I had the privilege of launching the GIS-IVQ Joint Laboratory. The delegation included a visit to ThincLab Singapore, part of the University of Adelaide's ThincLab innovation hub network, ThincNet. This network encompasses ThincLab Adelaide, ThincLab Singapore and ThincLab Chalons in France. The network provides innovative spaces that discover and pioneer collaborative relationships with schools, industry, government, students and innovators in the wider community.

I had a productive second meeting with Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry, minister Iswaran. I was proud to introduce him to many of our South Australian delegates showcasing their products at a business networking event, including Greenwheat Freekeh Pty Ltd, Koonara Wines, Drifter Rum and many others. Three MOUs were signed in Singapore, including an agreement estimated to be worth $A40 million with the potential to create eight jobs in South Australia to set up an e-commerce platform to export South Australian food produce to wider Asia, using Singapore as a transshipment hub. I can mention that the Department of Primary Industries is heavily at work with our food producers getting their product to export.

The MOUs also included a collaboration between Flinders University and Nanyan Technological University on the Medical Device Partnering Program (MDPP), and Singapore was the second MOU signed. An agreement was also signed between SPRING Singapore and the Department of Primary Industries and Regions SA that will enable both governments to learn from each other to further collaborate and innovate through the South Australian Food Innovation Centre (SAFIC) and Singapore's Food Innovation Cluster (FIC).

Singapore is amongst our top 10 source countries for international students, with 539 students studying in SA in 2016. Our three universities, StudyAdelaide, TAFE, as well as private education providers, were all represented on the mission. This is one of our biggest exports: education. The mission then travelled to Malaysia, where I had a second meeting with Malaysia's Minister for International Trade and Industry, Dato' Sri Mustapa Bin Mohamed. We also had productive meetings with minister Hishammuddin, Malaysia's Minister of Defence, as well as the Chief of the Defence Force and the Chief of Navy.

Two-way trade between SA and Malaysia was worth just over $1 billion last year. That is a lot of jobs and enterprise at home. Malaysia continues to be a significant market for education, as our fourth largest source country for international students. We had 1,775 young Malaysians students studying in SA last year. The mission then divided, with some streams continuing on to Penang, led by my parliamentary friend the Minister for Health and Minister for The Arts while others travelled to East Malaysia.

In Kuching, we had a warm meeting with the Governor of Sarawak, another alumnus of the University of Adelaide, and met Sarawak's Minister for International Trade. This was followed by travel to Kota Kinabalu, where we visited the Sepanggar Naval Base and met with the chief of the naval base, followed by a meeting with the Naval Group (formerly DCNS). Both Malaysia and Australia are customers of DCNS, the Naval Group, in the business of submarines. We have much to learn from one another.

Finally, we travelled to Yangon to explore the opportunities for South Australian trade with Myanmar, particularly around education and services. We visited the project site of SA firm RJE Global, which established its office in Yangon two years ago. It provides engineering and construction services for projects in industries, including mining, energy and infrastructure. Members may be interested to know this South Australian company has established a 30-megawatt diesel gas power plant, assembled in Adelaide and maintained by South Australian workers in Myanmar. It was great to visit their work. It was a very interesting aspect of SA exports.

I look forward to hearing the outcomes from the business delegates on the mission. Our final business mission to South-East Asia for 2017 will take place from 20 to 26 August to include Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. I look forward to leading more South Australian exporters to make the most of the opportunities with our nearest trading partners, activities that sustain 72 000 jobs here in SA.