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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (27 November) . . Page.. 4821 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

The conventional wisdom these days is that it is not a case of nation competing with nation any more; region competes with region. The ACT has a considerable advantage which we intend to leverage and the government will continue to promote and to build whatever support mechanisms are necessary for our companies and for our region to compete amongst the other regions of the world. I think that this place has tremendous prospects.

We also visited San Diego, an area that built itself because it made a conscious effort and got on the front foot in terms of developing, particularly, high-tech industries and biotech industries. I have to say that all credit goes to the eight companies that effectively presented the ACT to Silicon Valley a matter of a few weeks ago and did us proud. I am absolutely certain that in the future those companies will do us proud, as have companies that have gone before them to the States, such as Tower Software, SoftLaw, Protocom, CEA and Phenomix, companies that are now established on the world stage.

MR HARGREAVES: I have a supplementary question. I thank the minister for his answer about what happened on the West Coast. Could the minister advise the house of the outcomes of the second half of his visit?

MR QUINLAN: The main point of heading to the East Coast of the States was to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Greater Washington Initiative. That organisation is funded mainly by the private sector but it acts as a link between emerging business opportunities and investment and sells Washington as a high-tech capital. I have to advise that the Greater Washington Initiative does not sign MOUs lightly. I think that it had signed one before. We have visited them twice and we have a memorandum of understanding, which I table for the information of members. I present the following paper:

Memorandum of Understanding between The Greater Washington Initiative and The Australian Capital Territory.

The MOU does commit both parties to the sharing of information and ideas, identifying export opportunities and facilitating trade, facilitating the exchange of people and skills, and marketing the respective regions. We do have to come to terms with the fact that the ACT is a relatively small jurisdiction or region and we do not have the resources to have agents-general scattered around. At the same time, we do need to have processes whereby companies in the ACT that wish to export have the easiest entree that it is possible for us to arrange in the world markets.

This government will continue to work with organisations such as the Greater Washington Initiative to try to build the doorways upon which our local companies can knock and get a friendly reception and possible assistance in breaking into markets. It is quite clear now that the best way that our emerging companies can enter export markets is by partnering, by being part of a group that puts a complete system package together, or by having contacts with firms on the ground in other centres across the world who do know the lie of the land and can assist in building the right connections for the very good ideas that are emerging from the ACT to enter the world market.

The government intends to continue to try to build a network. Beyond the Greater Washing Initiative we have made a number of other contacts, solid contacts, which we

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