French-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The Hon. J.S. LEE (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (16:12): I move:

That this council—

1. Congratulates the French-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FACCI) which was founded in 1899 for celebrating the momentous occasion of its 125^th anniversary in 2024;

2. Reflects on the 125 years of achievements by FACCI and on its remarkable milestone and acknowledges that Australia's relationship with France is underpinned by enduring historical links, with consular and diplomatic engagement dating back to 1842;

3. Acknowledges FACCI's key mission is to promote business opportunities between French and Australian companies by sharing valuable information, providing networking platforms and business support services;

4. Recognises Australia and France share a commitment to a dynamic bilateral relationship and FACCI plays a significant role to foster successful outcomes for French and Australian companies; and

5. Highlights the contributions by board members and partners of FACCI in strengthening the 'French connections' and creating business opportunities for South Australia across many industry sectors.

It is a great honour to move this motion to congratulate the French-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FACCI) on reaching the special milestone of their 125^th anniversary in 2024. FACCI is the leading French-Australian business network, gathering and assisting over 470 company members and 1,500 contacts into the Australian market. Since they were founded in 1899, FACCI has played a leading role in Australia's relationship with France. Today this motion gives us the opportunity to reflect on the 125 years of achievements by FACCI and on its remarkable milestone, and acknowledges Australia's relationship with France is underpinned by enduring historical links, with consular and diplomatic engagement that dates back to 1842.

Australia and France are tied together by our cooperation in both the first and second world wars, when thousands of Australian and French soldiers fought side-by-side to defend shared values of liberty, democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights. These values are still at the core of our societies and underpin our strong bilateral relationship and international engagement. Australia and France continue to work together in many fields such as defence and international security, climate change mitigation and energy transition, supply chain resilience and cooperating in pursuit of our shared interest in the Indo-Pacific region and Antarctica.

With such a long legacy and shared history, FACCI has opened five chapters over the last 125 years, with offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the team at the SA chapter for their hard work and dedicated service to FACCI as well as South Australia.

I would like to mention Florence Masters, head of the operational team in South Australia. Anyone who has had the pleasure to meet or work with Florence would agree with me that Florence is a dynamic, resourceful and energetic leader who is doing a fantastic job managing day-to-day administration, membership engagement and event organisation.

I mentioned in my speech at the EuroMix this year that Florence is definitely an influencer and her ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders and bring everyone together is a great asset to FACCI and to the South Australian business community.

Wafaa Khalifi, President of the SA chapter council, is another wonderful leader. Wafaa brings many years of corporate and business experience from working in various industries and is deeply connected to South Australia through her current role as General Manager, Production and Treatment Alliance South Australian Water at Suez.

Romain Bertin is Vice-President of the SA chapter council. The other SA chapter council members are Suleman Ahmed, Florent Campagne, Max Cateau, Ian Coker, Clement Demarais, Adrien Doucet, Julia Dreosti, Sajimon Joseph, Olga Kostic, Manon Perichou, Stephanie Rinck-Pfeiffer and Chris Stinchcombe. Congratulations to the FACCI team for their great work in stimulating the local French-Australian business community and promoting the activities and services of the chamber.

FACCI provides their services on the foundation of their main mission, which is to help French and Australian companies succeed through information sharing, networking and business support services. FACCI's list of services include promoting Australia as a place of business to French and European companies, assisting with company set-up, providing legal service, assisting with visa and immigration requirements, translation and interpreting services, domiciliation services at their addresses in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, and many other services as well.

FACCI in SA communicates with over 2,000 companies on a weekly basis from all industries. More than half of these are Australian companies, and they attract many members who are not connected to France. Due to FACCI's expansive and rich network, many business leaders join FACCI to gain a connection to the chambers and other businesses.

To highlight FACCI's successes and to demonstrate that South Australia is well positioned to be internationally competitive, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the biggest French companies now operating in South Australia.

Suez, as I mentioned before, is a major player in environmental services, delivering sustainable water and wastewater services in metropolitan Adelaide in partnership with SA Water. Egis is a leading global consulting, construction engineering and operating firm. REDARC Group encompass REDARC Electronics, Hummingbird Electronics and REDARC Defence & Space. Ekium provides end-to-end engineering design, project management and prototyping services to all sectors, including mining and resources, defence, aerospace, automotive, building and construction, medical, food and beverage, and utilities.

Accor Group has a number of fantastic hotel offerings in South Australia, including the Sofitel Adelaide and Pullman Adelaide. Sofitel is a pioneering French luxury hospitality brand established in 1964. We are fortunate to have this international brand in South Australia as Sofitel brings a French sophistication to Adelaide and adds to the many top-class accommodation and tourism offerings we have in South Australia.

Cylad Consulting is a strategy and management consulting firm that advises both major industrial enterprises and SMEs in assembly industries. Bonjour Australia provides French lessons for children, adults and groups in both online and face-to-face formats. Acorel is a leading expert in automatic people counting and flow analysis solutions and provides automated people counting for Adelaide's tram network. Keolis Downer currently operates the Adelaide metro passenger rail network. Bouygues Constructions has just been announced as part of the preferred alliance for the River Torrens to Darlington project.

I want to extend a special thanks to all these businesses operating in South Australia and making a great contribution to the economy of South Australia and also to jobs. These are just some of the many French companies now based in South Australia thanks to the wraparound support and comprehensive services provided by FACCI. FACCI is an impressive organisation which organises a number of events, with about 20 events each year being held in South Australia alone. Many of these events include business social networking, webinars and presentations from experts across various industries.

FACCI SA also has two flagship events which I have had the pleasure of supporting, namely FACCI's annual gala and EuroMix. This year's annual gala was indeed a special event to mark the official celebration of FACCI's 125^th anniversary. The gala was held on Tuesday 14 May and was a Great Gatsby inspired cocktail dinner tour, which encouraged guests to embrace the 1920s-style fancy dresses and dinner suits. Sofitel's restaurant, Garçon Bleu, provided the perfect venue for the milestone celebration. It was my pleasure to meet many distinguished guests, including His Excellency Pierre-André Imbert, the newly appointed Ambassador of France to Australia; Honorary Consul of France, Mrs Marcia McLachlan; as well as many business leaders and chambers' representatives.

It was also a pleasure to attend EuroMix just a couple of weeks ago. EuroMix is a wonderful event that is jointly hosted by FACCI, together with nine different European chambers of commerce here in Adelaide, representing France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia, Austria and Switzerland. EuroMix is an important yearly networking event that celebrates business exchange and the friendship between European countries and Australia. As the largest and most active chamber in South Australia, FACCI is the leading convener for EuroMix each year. It is an opportunity for South Australia to expand its connections with the EU as a whole across a variety of important industries and sectors.

As a bloc, the EU is equivalent to the third largest economy in the world, valued at $US16.7 trillion in 2022, and sits behind only the US and China. Excluding intra-EU trade, it is the world's second largest merchandise importer and second largest merchandise exporter. The EU plays an important role in our economy. Australia's two-way trade in goods with the EU was valued at $86.4 billion in 2023, representing approximately 8.5 per cent of Australia's total goods trade. This positions the EU as Australia's third largest trading partner, following China (31.5 per cent) and Japan (11.5 per cent).

The EU exported goods worth $63.9 billion to Australia in 2023. This reflects an annual average growth rate of 5.7 per cent over the past five years. The EU is Australia's second largest source of goods imports, accounting for 15.1 per cent of Australia's total imports, after China, which accounts for 25.3 per cent. The total trade in services between the EU and Australia was valued at $56.9 billion in 2022, with this figure growing consistently over the last five years.

The EU exported $42.1 billion worth of services to Australia, positioning the EU as Australia's largest source of trade in services imports, ahead of the United States, with imports from Australia to the EU reaching $14.8 billion. In 2023, the EU-South Australia trade was worth $2.6 billion. The EU is South Australia's third largest trading partner and the second largest source of imports.

Some of these statistics further demonstrate the extensive importance of our ongoing relationship with the EU, and FACCI as a key facilitator on the national and state level. It was my great honour to be invited as a guest speaker, representing the leader and the Liberal Party, to speak at EuroMix this year about the importance of our relationship with France and the EU and to also hear from some other fantastic guest speakers at the event, including His Excellency Pierre-André Imbert, the Ambassador of France to Australia, and also His Excellency Mr Gabriele Visentin, the European Ambassador to Australia.

It was great that the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Vincent Tarzia, was able to join EuroMix a bit later that evening along with other parliamentary colleagues and many distinguished guests. Once again, I want to thank all the team and council members of FACCI, both here in the SA chapter and also at the national level, for their extensive and hard work in connecting Australian businesses and entrepreneurs with their French and other European counterparts.

It is indeed wonderful to recognise that Australia and France share a commitment to a dynamic bilateral relationship and I commend FACCI for playing a significant role to foster successful outcomes for French and Australian companies. Once again, I would like to offer my congratulations. It is a great honour to highlight the contributions of FACCI in strengthening the French connections in South Australia. With those congratulatory remarks, I wish FACCI a fantastic 125^th celebration. May they enjoy another 125 years and beyond of outstanding contribution. With those remarks, I wholeheartedly commend the motion.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.