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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-03-18 Daily Xml
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SinoSA House

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:03): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Business and Community Services a question regarding SinoSA House.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: I note the minister addressed a question on this topic yesterday, but my questions deal with different aspects of the same issue. An establishment agreement defining the commitments of both the Qingdao National High-Tech Zone and BioSA was completed following on from the signing of the heads of agreement in October last year. The SinoSA House project is a five-year experiment, which would allow approximately 12 South Australian high-tech companies free access to space and business support in China, and the potential to establish subsidiaries and joint ventures with other companies located in China.

BioSA Chief Executive, Dr Jurgen Michaelis, has said that they would like to position SA as a technology exporter to China. It was initially hoped that this opportunity would be available to SA businesses within six months of the signing of the heads of agreement, which of course would mean implementation by April this year (or next month). At the time of signing in October it was reported that the BioSA SinoSA House project did not require any further funding. However, the state government has now committed $180,000 in seed funding. My questions to the minister are:

1. When will the first SA business be able to access this opportunity? Will it be in April as expected?

2. What is the $180,000 in seed funding intended to be used for?

3. When is it anticipated that South Australia could reasonably see technological exports to China as a result of this agreement?

4. What is the projected economic return to the state from this project?

5. How many businesses does the minister expect will benefit from this project?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (15:05): I thank the honourable member for his most important questions. Indeed, the development of this really exciting initiative does hold a great deal of potential to assist high-tech businesses from South Australia to access Chinese markets. SinoSA House, as the honourable member outlined, is placed in the national high-tech zone in Qingdao. It is a national high-tech centre. It is a centre of great importance for high-tech business developments in China. This initiative, in effect, creates a platform to enable South Australian businesses to access and engage with business ideas and market potential in China.

I am happy to get details about the $180,000 and bring them back, but my understanding is that, generally speaking, it is to pay for a case manager who is operating to assist, particularly at the China end, in establishing office space and the other sorts of connections that are needed, the business liaising there, and also in operating here in South Australia to identify and start to get ready potential businesses to engage at this end.

In relation to the other details, I am happy to take those on notice and bring back a response. It offers great potential. It proposes to start small and make engagements with a couple of businesses to begin with and then, once we have the processes and systems in place, to accelerate that into the future. With the removal of our traditional manufacturing sectors, we have set ourselves the task of replacing those with advanced manufacturing in particular, and this initiative does help promote those perhaps small businesses or start-up businesses in South Australia to be able to access investment and market positioning internationally.

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