South West visitors keen to promote business

Four of the State’s trade commissioners paid a visit to the South West last week to explore potential opportunities for local businesses.

During their visit, the State’s trade commissioners to China, India, Japan and Indonesia undertook a series of business engagements, shared insights and market opportunities and gained a deeper understanding of local economic development projects.

The visit, organised by the South West Development Commission and TradeStart, included a jam-packed itinerary that saw them attend an exporters’ forum, an entrepreneurs and investors’ pitch event and site visits to commercial operations and strategic industrial land.

The trade commissioners also had the opportunity to meet local industry leaders across sectors including horticulture, wine, meat processing, freight and logistics as well as advanced engineering and manufacturing.

SWDC chairman Nick Belyea said having the trade commissioners visit the region created an opportunity to enhance and develop strong links with important contacts in international markets.

“We have had well established markets in all of these countries,” Mr Belyea said.

“Irrespective of what is going on in the world with COVID-19, the idea of the trade commissioners’ visit was to look at enhancing that in the future.

“We live in a great region and have enormous potential and this forum gave the trade commissioners the opportunity to see that potential.”

SWDC chief executive officer Mellisa Teede said the commission was looking at what it could do to diversify the economy, increase productivity and attract investment.

“We are delighted to be able to provide local businesses with a chance to network with the trade commissioners and receive insight from them, particularly while trading conditions remain challenging,” she said. “We hope this will assist local exporters to position themselves to maintain or grow export activity, particularly as Asia continues to adjust to new trading conditions in the recovery from COVID-19.”