I’ve just returned from a week in Singapore for CommunicAsia. Conferences and Expos like this one are always a great opportunity to see what’s happening through the rest of the region.
I was there as part of a Victorian Government Trade Mission, exploring opportunities for partnerships and exporting our knowledge and expertise on Cloud Solutions into markets throughout the Asia Pacific Region. It was a thoroughly worthwhile experience for me but it was also an eye opener of the state of the ICT Industry in Victoria.
I got to meet some great representatives of Victorian Companies on this Mission – some already active overseas and some looking to expand. There’s a lot going on in Victoria and the ICT Industry is thriving.
From their own publication handed out to expo attendees during the Mission – “Victoria’s ICT industry employs around 91,300 people – about 30 per cent of Australia’s total ICT employment – and generates over A$34 billion in gross annual revenue. The industry creates A$2.51 billion in overseas operations and annual exports and is home to more than 8000 employing companies.” (From Ms Helen Rowell, Executive Director, South East Asia in the “Victorian Government CommunicAsia Mission Directory”)
What’s interesting is that the Victorian ICT industry is thriving at the same time that the current State Government is re-assessing Grant Programs and Trade Missions. That the Government is assessing the value of these programs (they clearly are – whilst this Trade Mission went ahead there are other programs and Grant Assistance Packages that are currently unavailable) suggests that the Government clearly doesn’t understand the value of these programs.
This could mean one of two things:
- These programs aren’t valuable and should be scrapped.
- These programs are valuable but the Industry (or at least Mission and Grant Participants) are suffering a PR problem and not educating Government well enough about the value of the program.)
My suggestion is likely the second. I found value from the Mission. Everyone I spoke to found value from the mission.
I want to be clear in this post. I’m not arguing for handouts for businesses but I don’t necessarily think that, in the absence of proper taxation reform, it is necessarily a bad thing to provide opportunities for an industry providing so much to the economy the opportunity to further expand their businesses, increase the size of their businesses and benefit all Victorians through economic growth.
I do hope that after this review the current Victorian State Government sees the value that the ICT industry provides to Victoria and looks to end the suspension of ICT trade mission and Grants and Investment programs.