International Trade

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Can the minister update the house on how the government is supporting businesses and building confidence through our network of international trade offices?

The Hon. S.J.R. PATTERSON (Morphett—Member of the Executive Council, Minister for Trade and Investment) (15:02): I thank the member for MacKillop for his question. Going down to Mount Gambier with him, I had the opportunity to see some of the important businesses in his community, whether that is in wine or food or seafood or meat, for example. It was quite clear the connection that the member for MacKillop has with his business community, talking about how he can help assist grow their businesses.

Of course, those sectors are very export focused, and we see a real chance here to grow their business through exports. In fact, since the first day of coming into government here, a key pillar of the Marshall government's economic plan has been to expand market access into some key market areas for South Australian businesses. One of the ways we are doing that is to open up new trade offices in these key markets across the world, getting that on-the-ground representation for South Australian businesses.

When we came to office, Mr Speaker, the cupboard was bare and the international representation we had had been slashed, but you will be very pleased to hear that since coming into government we have worked really hard on increasing that representation and getting it to the stage where South Australian businesses and businesses in your electorate, member for MacKillop, can have confidence that they can go out, export into the world, put their case and put their best foot forward.

Some of those trade offices, you might be interested in, Mr Speaker, include Shanghai in China, one of our key export markets, $3.5 billion of exports into China, making sure there is representation there into that key market. Another established market where there was no representation was a $900 million market in the US—no representation. We have changed that, and we have set up a trade office in Houston and we have set up a trade office in New York. That gives great coverage not only in the central US but also the western US, giving good coverage there.

Additionally, we have put into those emerging markets where we know there is great opportunity for growth. We've got exports going into them, but how can we boost that? Tokyo, Japan, is where we have put a trade office and also in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. You can see that not only is the Asia-Pacific area looked after but also that key Middle East area, the gateway into the Middle East via Dubai.

Of course, there are other countries that are really important as well, so we have put business development managers in South Korea and also New Delhi, India, which is really important. You can see massive opportunities in India, but that's going to require time on the ground to get that on-the-ground support for our South Australian businesses to get that market intelligence, which is so vital. Imagine, Mr Speaker—because of coronavirus international travel has been stopped; there's no travel overseas—where we would have been trying to grow our economy in the midst of a global pandemic without that market representation.

That's why it's fantastic that we have had this in place already so that we can continue to grow and expand into those markets. How do we do that? By virtual business-to-business matching and connections, matching up those businesses out of our trade offices, our trade office staff going and introducing those businesses, or webinars explaining what is happening here in South Australia and why you would want to import from South Australia.

If I could just talk a little bit about the US-based trade offices, in New York our representatives are Stuart Nutting and also Regina Johnson. In Houston, they have been working hard with some fantastic wine industries, virtual matching as well, to try to introduce 23 South Australian wineries to importers, to markets there and also to retailers. That's a fantastic way we can get them in front of South Australian wineries and in front of key importers there in the US. It's a complex market, but we are working with our businesses. Our trade offices are doing a fantastic job connecting South Australian businesses to new customers throughout the world.