Trade and Investment

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Can the minister please provide an update to the council about how the Department for Trade and Investment is enhancing its digital capabilities to support trade and investment at this important time?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade and Investment) (14:55): I thank the honourable member for his very important question. The COVID-19 crisis presents an unprecedented disruption to how people traditionally communicate, affecting how businesses pursue global trade and investment opportunities. The state government is implementing a suite of digital measures to support and maintain our relationships with international partners during this crisis.

Upskilling our digital capabilities will not only allow us to interact with our partners in ways that we haven't ever before, it will also allow us to improve the trade and investment performance when Australia emerges from the COVID-19 crisis with new technologies, new approaches and technology. Additionally, the South Australian trade offices are more important than ever to engage with exporters and provide up-to-date information from on the ground.

To this end, we have developed a virtual action plan which has six key focuses. Firstly, our trade officers will host webinars for our local international audience that will allow us to continue to connect our state with the world and maintain important relationships with South Australia's key companies and markets. We already have webinars booked over the next two weeks with Japan, Malaysia, United States, China and the United Kingdom.

A new range of departmental digital assets will be released, including a more interactive website as well as investor portals. Video case studies that showcase our state's local producers for the first time will be able to take our partners on virtual walk-throughs of some of our state-of-the-art facilities, giving investors a real taste of the capacity of our state. For investors, we are also creating a one-stop shop where we will showcase a catalogue of investment-ready opportunities that we can promote to a global audience.

The second phase of this project will see the creation of a digital front door where the department will work with companies interested in investing in South Australia to curate and develop a suite of opportunities for them. We will also have on-demand virtual missions, and trade events will be launched, along with industry-specific sessions with the overseas offices and associations. In fact, in the very near future we will be having some virtual wine tastings. We are also launching on-demand business-to-business as well as business-to-government videoconferencing meetings.

Finally, we are taking South Australia to the world. You will see more promotion from our state's leading-edge creations and technologies across multiple channel media and social media as we pivot our strategy to focus on delivering this information directly to users' devices. With advice surrounding the crisis changing on a daily basis, our first and foremost responsibility is providing those affected with this unprecedented crisis with support and information, and the virtual action plan makes up just one aspect of my department's response to the coronavirus. We will continue to work tirelessly to support South Australian families, businesses and industry.