The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA (CCI) is pleased to announce that it has secured the Australian Government’s TradeStart program tender to continue supporting Western Australian SMEs to grow their international trade opportunities.
The four-year $800,000 TradeStart contract, delivered on behalf of Austrade from 1 July 2019, will build on the success of our last contract in helping SMEs across the Perth Greater Metro region to pursue export success through CCI’s International Trade and Investment Centre (ITIC).
Over the past four years ITIC has delivered over 350 TradeStart services to over 220 Western Australian SMEs, including market entry and development support, building awareness of export financial assistance programs and understanding FTAs and tariff import barriers.
To further enhance Western Australian SMEs engagement in the Asia-Pacific region, CCI is also pleased to have also secured a $70,000 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Market Entry Grant from Austrade to deliver our Agriculture and Premium Food and Beverage (APFB) Asian Export program.
This program will play a key role in boosting WA’s profile as a premium supplier of agriculture and food and beverage products in Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.
This builds on ITIC’s work in delivering over 250 FTA training sessions to WA businesses over the past year alone and issuing over 20,000 certificates of origin, which has helped WA exporters achieve export success and leverage the benefits of bilateral and multilateral FTAs.
WA business accounts for more than 40 per cent of Australia’s merchandise exports. We are a trading state and CCI is proud to have worked closely with WA business across spectrum of the WA economy to achieve this position.
These contracts will be welcome news to WA businesses who have benefited from our local boots on the ground assistance and direct link to Austrade’s services and overseas network.
We look forward to continuing to play a leading role in supporting WA SMEs in particular to understand the international export opportunities available to them, and importantly how they can capitalise to grow their business.
