Minister's Foreword
Through its Department of Commerce and Trade, the Western Australian Government is committed to increasing investment, enhancing trade and improving regional development.
In this role Commerce and Trade helps to build a base for industry growth in Western Australia which includes strategic infrastructure, a growing skills base and the application of science and technology. It also promotes better business practices and an international focus in the manufacturing, processing and services sectors of the economy. This occurs through the development of export markets for goods and services originating in Western Australia.
As well, the department encourages business investment in all parts of Western Australia and in line with the state's competitive strengths. These strengths include capability in building and construction; services to the oil, gas and mining sectors; information and communications technology; food and beverages; shipbuilding, transport engineering and planning; education and training; professional services and cultural industries; and health and environment management. Western Australia's strengths also include geographic attributes such as the same time zone as most of Asia, close proximity to the Indian Ocean Rim and South East Asia and a natural abundance of clean air, productive land and unpolluted coastline.
To better equip itself for this role, the department has at its core a series of work teams focussed on all aspects of industry development. Each team is aligned with a cluster of industry sector associations and related groups, working in partnership to foster advanced, internationally competitive enterprises.
These teams, in collaboration with industry and other public sector agencies, have produced a series of strategy plans to identify key issues critical to the growth of business. They commit Commerce and Trade to a continuing contribution to industry development in partnership with organisations in those industries. This document is one of the series.
Commerce and Trade continues to assist individual businesses in areas such as investment attraction, export market support and enterprise development. However, the development of these industry strategies means that the priorities in these areas are increasingly being developed in concert with relevant industry organisations.
The objectives and strategies outlined in these plans confirm the direction of existing support for industry. The range of financial and non-financial assistance from Commerce and Trade-including export support, business improvement, infrastructure and R&D support-will continue because such assistance measures have been tested and proved to be relevant and valuable to many clients. New services are being added in order to meet emerging industry needs and changing economic circumstances. These include financial assistance to encourage industry associations and funding to help research new markets. A complete list of such assistance appears at the back of this document.
