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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Tuesday, 30 March 2004) . . Page.. 1292 ..

MRS BURKE: Mr Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to thank the Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism, Mr Quinlan, for allowing me to join his delegation to North America and to be a part of the second ANZATech—Australia-New Zealand-America Technology—conference, which, as the minister has said, was held in Palo Alto, otherwise known as Silicon Valley. I also would like to thank the shadow minister for business and tourism, Mr Smyth, for the timing of his wedding and honeymoon. I am particularly grateful for the opportunity presented to attend in his stead.

I was pleased and very proud to be a part of the delegation, as I know personally many of the businesses that took part. I was honoured to be present to support eight dynamic and innovative businesses from the ACT which went through the very nerve-wracking process of having to stand up in front of people and demonstrate their wares in a very limited amount of time.

This mission gave businesses a very real and genuine opportunity to display their wares in North America with a view to establishing strategic alliances and joint ventures and provided an opportunity for them to secure venture capital or angel funding. It was an excellent initiative. It was instigated in the first instance, I have to say, by Mr Greg Wood, manager of the trade start program for Australian Business Ltd. Greg was inspired by the Austrade IT roadshow in 2002 and took his idea to the government and BusinessACT, which obviously accepted it.

This mission shows the determination that business organisations have to ensure that the very best opportunities are sourced by business for business. I can only applaud the proactive approach by Australian Business Ltd, which worked very closely with the Austrade regional trade commissioner, Mr Brent Juratowich, to ensure this mission was a success.

I also commend the work of BusinessACT, under the leadership of Greg Keogh and his team of Karyn Chittick, Michelle Fulton, Annette Wrightston and Kasia Dzielenska, who worked like Trojans to ensure the arrangements for the trip were first class. Indeed, I think everyone on that trip will attest to that. They are to be commended for their efforts and I thank them personally.

Whilst we may hear from time to time about the success and progress of some businesses in the ACT, I do not believe that currently we give enough recognition to the very valuable contribution that they make to the ACT economy. So I would at this time, with members’ indulgence, like to take the opportunity to mention again those businesses—the minister has mentioned them briefly—which, with the support of the ACT government, support for which it is widely noted in the report they were very grateful, and with the energy and commitment to coaching by ABL and the support of BusinessACT, will continue to grow and reap the rewards of this trip.

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