Local Business Partnerships

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Can the minister update the council on how the government is facilitating new partnerships between local businesses and firms in new markets?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:31): I thank the honourable member for his ongoing interest in how we are growing the economy and putting partners together. This morning, I had the pleasure of witnessing an MOU being signed between local technology company IPACS and the Tacmin group, a South African based project management firm specialising in mining. The Tacmin group was founded in 1996, but only expanded into the Australian market in 2018, via a branch in Perth, followed by an office in Adelaide in April this year.

IPACS is an Adelaide headquartered company specialising in IT infrastructure management, asset data management and analytics to provide real-time feedback on critical assets. Its office is located in Mawson Lakes, where they launched their Remote Asset Management Centre in 2015. It was great to see a range of people from both companies in the signing, and also a number of people from the Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment.

The technology is fascinating, and Dr Vinay Sriram showcased the impressive technology to the attendees. It effectively monitors all equipment in mines in real time back in the centralised data asset management centre. The MOU will develop a shared pipeline of project opportunities focused on remote asset management technology and technology consulting services in the defence, mining and construction industries.

My department identified the potential for the two companies to collaborate, and connected the businesses in the hope that it would lead to new projects and access to new markets. The MOU signing is a result of that connection. The partnership has already generated much interest in the mining community, and I am excited for where that partnership can take both companies as they embark on expanding into new markets. It was great to see Mr Sarel Blaauw from the Tacmin group saying he was leaving for Kazakhstan this afternoon to expand the business into that part of the globe.

As the government would believe, it is vital for our local businesses to grow and to export their products to new markets, and that's why, again, we have opened two of our trade offices already and yesterday we released our business missions calendar, because we are very keen to make sure that partnerships like the one I have just described, the MOU, get a chance to blossom and flourish and we can actually use our trade offices and our network of people on the ground to help grow these businesses.

I would also like to thank Dr Vinay Sriram and Mr Kailash Sriram from IPACS as well as Mr Sarel Blaauw from Tacmin group for allowing me to witness their MOU signing for this new venture. I wish all groups all the very best. I would also like to thank the department. It is great work that they found these two companies, independent of each other. They saw an opportunity to bring them together, they brought them together, and now it is an opportunity for them to work together not only to grow their own business but to create more jobs in our South Australian economy and of course grow the economy.