Closer relations
Queensland wants to catalyse Pacific economies
THE state of Queensland in Australia has set its eyes on its Pacific neighbours, stating this week its intention to strengthen trade and business partnerships and take economic relations to new levels.
Trade and Investment Queensland (TIQ) chief executive officer Justin McGowan, head of a trade delegation currently in Fiji, said TIQ’s newly launched Queensland Pacific Strategy underscored the state’s “new strategy to focus on the Pacific” with the appointment of a dedicated Trade Commissioner, Leata Alaimoana, specifically to look after the Pacific.
“We have agreed to fund $A4.3m initially, of activities right across the Pacific, so we’re putting a staff member in Papua New Guinea, which we have already. We’ve put a staff member in Auckland and we’re putting one in Suva very soon,” Mr McGowan said in an interview with The Fiji Times.
“It’s to be able to promote Queensland businesses in the Pacific but more so, to promote Fijian businesses and Pacific businesses so that we can help them export to the world. So we see Queensland as the gateway to the Pacific. We also see Queensland as the gateway to the world for the Pacific. So, how do we help Fijian companies and take their products around the world?”
Mr McGowan said TIQ will be working closely with investment agencies, business councils and local businesses across the Pacific and will be sharing its resources for the development of business opportunities.
“In Trade and Investment Queensland, we have specialist sector teams, so we have agriculture teams, we have manufacture teams, defence and aerospace teams, technology and innovation teams and we have deep specialisation in all of the different sectors and we’re about to use those teams as well to work with Pacific businesses and Leata (Leata Alaimoana) as our new Trade Commissioner, to identify and unlock those opportunities.”
“Trade Investment Queensland has 19 offices all around the world so we’re about to share that network and all of our staff that are helping Queensland businesses and provide that same service to Pacific businesses”.
The Queensland delegation, comprising representatives from 19 businesses and some senior players and talent coaches from Brisbane Broncos and Queensland Reds, met with members of the Queensland Alumni in Fiji at a reception on Wednesday evening.
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GROUNDWORK for what could be a monumental shift in Fiji’s economy has been set in motion with the arrival this week of a trade delegation from Australia’s local Queensland Government, set to strengthen and take Fiji’s trade and business relations with Australia and the world to a new level.
The mission, led by Trade and Investment Queensland (TIQ) chief executive officer Justin McGowan, included representatives from 19 companies in Brisbane as well as senior players and scouting officials from the Brisbane Broncos and Queensland Reds.
The Fiji Times spoke to Mr McGowan on what this all meant for the Pacific region and for Fiji. FT: Please tell us a bit more about TIQ’s Pacific initiative and why you’re here?
Mr McGowan: We’re Queensland’s investment attraction and trade agency, we’re the business agents for Queensland.
We have launched the new strategy to focus on the Pacific, it’s called the Queensland Pacific Strategy.
We have put in place a Trade Commissioner for Queensland for the Pacific. That’s Leata Alaimoana — the first of any state in Australia.
We have agreed to fund $A4.3m initially of activities right across the Pacific, so we’re putting a staff member in Papua New Guinea, which we have already.
We’ve put a staff member in Auckland and we’re putting one in Suva very soon.
It’s to be able to promote Queensland businesses in the Pacific but more so, to promote Fijian businesses and Pacific businesses so that we can help them export to the world.
So we see Queensland as the gateway to the Pacific.
We also see Queensland as the gateway to the world for the Pacific.
So, how do we help Fijian companies and take their products around the world?
FT: What has brought this about – this new way of engaging with the Pacific?
Mr McGowan: I think it’s the realisation that our nearest neighbours are the Pacific.
We have the largest Pacific community in Australia, in Queensland.
There are some suburbs in Queensland where Pacific languages are spoken as only second to English, so we have over 100,000 Pacific nationals who call Queensland home and we want to be able to work with them on drawing those closer people to people links, the education links, the sporting links.
People don’t know that APTC is actually underpinned by TAFE Queensland, so all of the education provided by APTC (Australia Pacific Training Coalition) is actually from Queensland.
FT: So it’s easier to link up the two…
Mr McGowan: Yes, and we’re really excited about it.
This week we brought some Broncos players with us for rugby league and their talent coach and we brought some players from the Queensland Reds here with us.
In Samoa and now in Fiji, we’ve been doing a whole range of clinics at schools with young women, young men, teaching them how to be coaches, training young women and men about rugby union and rugby league.
FT: Who else have you met and what’s the reception like from them?
Mr McGowan: It’s been very warm welcoming.
Ever since we landed, we have met with the business community here, the Fiji/Australia Business councils, all different Fijian businesses, Australians who are living and working here and spoken to them about this, some of the opportunities and some of the challenges.
We’ve met with APTC, talking about the training and the education.
We’ve met with the provident fund talking about investment across with Australia, with Queensland and with Fiji, and it’s just been fantastic.
FT: Investment outside of Fiji is a difficult thing to do on your own. Partnership is important and is needed.
Mr McGowan: Absolutely. I’ll give you a really good example. There’s a company called The Calmer Co. and Fiji Kava.
So lots of kava farmers have worked together with an Australian company to export kava to Australia.
It’s a collaborative approach. We export kava to Brisbane.
We put those ingredients together in a capsule form and it’s a health supplement and now we’ve helped the Fijian business and the Queensland business export to China.
Huge exports now in China of kava in capsule form and this is now helping small farmers in Fiji and helping small businesses in Queensland.
We’re doing the same with ginger.
Lots of ginger for Bundaberg ginger beer comes from Fiji — which is fantastic.
So how do we help small farmers grow? How do we do more value add work here in Fiji? How do we provide uplift in skills?
But I think it’s a shared responsibility we have for economic prosperity for the Pacific.
But for Queensland, how do we leverage the connections that Queensland has globally — Trade Investment Queensland have 19 offices all around the world.
So we’re going to be able to share that network and all of our staff that are helping Queensland businesses, and provide that same service to Pacific businesses.
FT: We have Investment Fiji which does a similar thing.
Mr McGowan: We work very closely with them. We met with them today, Investment Fiji.
We’ve agreed to partner and I think it’s a collaborative effort.
How do we connect Fiji businesses with Queensland businesses and form those partnerships? FT: Strategy for identifying potentials for other things than just ginger and kava?
Mr McGowan: Yes and I guess that starts with the conversation: we need to understand where Fiji’s strengths are and where there are opportunities to export.
And where Queensland’s strengths are and where there’s opportunities to help.
So that’s why we need to work closely with Investment Fiji, work closely with the business councils and do that business matching.
In Trade and Investment Queensland we have specialist sector teams, so we have agriculture teams, we have manufacture teams, defence and aerospace teams, technology and innovation teams…and we have deep specialisation in all of the different sectors and we want to be able to use those teams as well to work with Pacific businesses and Liata as our new Trade Commissioner to identify and unlock those opportunities.
FT: This will be replicated across the Pacific?
Mr McGowan: We’ll be active in lots of different countries (in the Pacific).
We’ll have a team based in Brisbane but working with our stakeholders, our allies, business councils, the investment agencies into bringing those things together.
Doing things like video conferences, connecting businesses, matching exercises between businesses in the same sector — so, some agriculture companies in Queensland, some agriculture companies in the Pacific…we brought a delegation here of 19 companies that are here with us right now here in Fiji.
We have people who have been exporting to Fiji for almost 50 years — Pacific Island International. We have Pacific Marine Group who has been creating ports and seawalls and navigational markets here.
We have Hall Contracting, who’s Australia’s largest dredging company, who dredges ports, they’re here with us.
We have lots of different companies and they’re already doing great things in the Pacific and already doing great things here in Fiji.
FT: Culturally, how are we similar?
Mr McGowan: There are lots of similarities? The climate is very similar, we share this great blue ocean, we even share things like tropical medicines.
Same challenges. We have expertise in tropical medicine. Queensland has the only research centre focused on the Pacific islands at the University of Sunshine Coast.
We have the Griffith Asia Institute that has a Pacific hub in Griffith University so there’s lots of understanding between the two but we can always do more.
So we’re going to make sure we use this opportunity to increase the cultural literacy of Queensland businesses and increase the businesses that are doing business in the Pacific, so before we introduce Queensland businesses to Pacific business, we want to make sure they’re Pacific ready. So this is where Leata comes in. She talks to them about doing business, some of the challenges, logistics, issues, talent issues and some very practical advise to make sure that everyone is very clear that this is for mutual benefit for our region.
FT: So more over the next 2 years?
Mr McGowan: Absolutely! A lot more with Queensland but working closely with the Federal Government, working closely with the high commission, working closely with AusTrade and helping those really small businesses as well.