South West Development Commission

The 10th anniversary of Bubury and Jiaxing's sister city celebrations was celebrated in China in November 2010.

Good relationships are often touted as the keys to business success. And there's no doubt our friendship with Jiaxing has provided a solid platform for economic cooperation between the South West region of Australia and China.

In the year that Bunbury and Jiaxing commemorated the 10-year anniversary of their sister city friendship, we saw the region's business relationship with China flourish.

For instance, the Bunbury-Jiaxing Business Office - which is overseen by the Commission and its partner agencies - hosted a series of visits by senior Chinese business figures. These delegations led to investments in the region, including the purchase of a beachside block of land in Bunbury for the purpose of developing resort-style accommodation.

There was also a positive flow of activity surrounding China's interest in the South West's premium wine industry. An example of this was in April 2011 when the Commission partnered with Austrade, the Margaret River Wine Industry and Wine Australia to host a wine-focused delegation from China as part of efforts to open up new markets for local wine labels.

Such was China's thirst for wine that we also began planning for the establishment of a South West wine centre in China. While the project is in the early stages, it is intended that the wine centre would be used to promote wines from the South West, while also showcasing the region as a tourist destination.

These activities have been able to run smoothly with the aid of the Bunbury-Jiaxing Business Office, which opened its doors in the Bunbury Tower in November 2008 and is complemented by its counterpart in the Jiaxing Foreign Economic and Trade Cooperation Bureau. Staff in the office can assist prospective importers and exporters with communications and advice, while helping to facilitate trade opportunities.

To help local business people intending to do business with China, the Bunbury-Jiaxing Business Office in conjunction with the Confucius Institute of The University of Western Australia continued to run a Mandarin course. Classes were particularly beneficial for people intending to visit China as part of business delegations organised by the Bunbury Chambers of Commerce and Industries.

The Bunbury-Jiaxing Office also played an important role in planning for the events to mark 10 years of Bunbury and Jiaxing's friendship. As part of this, the office hosted an exchange officer from Jiaxing between August 2010 and January 2011. During the exchange officer's stay, he was placed in a number of government agencies and given the opportunity to explore local government and business practice. The exchange officer also spent time with the Commission in Manjimup and Margaret River promoting sister city relationships and potential business opportunities.

We were also honoured to participate in the celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of Bunbury and Jiaxing's sister city relationship. As well as assisting with preparations for the event through the Bunbury-Jiaxing Business Office, representatives from the Commission travelled to Jiaxing in November 2010 to attend the celebrations, which included photo exhibitions, the opening of an international friendship park, and local industry displays and visits. During the celebrations, the Commission's chief executive officer was made an honorary citizen of the City of Jiaxing.

A trial of Sentinel Alert was launched at Jalbarragup in April 2011.

With its beautiful natural environment and distance from the often fast-paced metropolitan area of the State, the South West corner of Western Australia offers an attractive lifestyle. But it's this very same combination of forest and isolation that can prove deadly in a natural disaster such as a bushfire.

So when an opportunity to potentially enhance ways people in remote and rural areas of the region are alerted to bushfires came about, we were keen to support it.

We provided a grant of $95,000 to enable a trial of the new Sentinel Alert emergency bushfire system to go ahead at Jalbarragup, a settlement in the Nannup shire which is surrounded by forest and does not receive mobile phone or ABC Radio coverage.

The trial at Jalbarragup, which got underway in April 2011, saw almost every home in the town fitted out with a Sentinel Alert warning system.

About 70 emergency warning systems were set up in houses in Jalbarragup to test the effectiveness of the newly-created technology, which uses a unique combination of satellite and wireless technologies to activate individual household alarms encoded with GPS.

The trial at Jalbarragup followed a smaller-scale test of the warning system which commenced in Yallingup in February 2011 with the practical support of the Commission.

Both the Yallingup and Jalbarragup trials follow a small-scale, proof-of-concept assessment which was carried out with the backing of the Commission in March 2011.

Once the trials are complete and the effectiveness of the system has been determined, a report will be compiled and made available to relevant authorities to consider.

Critical Horizons Series - Manjimup May 2011.

In the year in review, changes to the operations of major employers adversely affected local communities.

The South West Development Commission reached out to support people through these challenging times.

In response to news Gunns Limited planned to close its sawmill at Deanmill and timber processing centre in Manjimup unless a buyer could be found, we set up a support centre in Manjimup.

The centre opened in October 2010 with the assistance of the Shire of Manjimup and the Manjimup Volunteer & Resource Centre, and during its three months of operation provided information to people about a range of services including employment options, retraining and financial management.

We also teamed up with Gunns Limited to make a training pool of $20,000 available to assist people, who were affected by the changes, to prepare for the future by gaining new skills and qualifications. The grants were delivered through the Manjimup Volunteer and Resource Centre, which assessed requests for assistance on a case-by-case basis.

We also coordinated an industry coordination and information group, led by local member Terry Redman and comprising representatives from the fields of industry, government and human services. This group worked to communicate relevant information and investigate positive outcomes for the community, including the possibility of establishing a fly-in, fly-out service to mining operations at the local airport.

Similarly, we provided assistance to workers and farmers affected by Challenge Dairy Australia going into receivership and Challenge Dairy Co-operative ceasing to trade.

Our support included the establishment of a support desk at the Capel Community Centre, arranged by the Shire of Capel, and staffed by the Commission, CentreLink and Jobs South West. About 30 workers visited this one-stop-shop, which was opened periodically when the staged laying off of workers was occurring.

Challenge Dairy farmers were offered support and expert consultancy through a visiting service arranged and resourced by the Commission. As well as about 40 farmers being visited by a counsellor on their properties and having access to business advice lessons, farmers also received a Christmas parcel of ham, wine and Christmas cake. The hampers were sponsored by local companies and community groups, and were very well received by the farmers.

In addition to supporting people affected by changes to operations in the South West, we also provided a valuable service to organisations unable to fill job vacancies locally.

In 2010/11, we processed and certified 204 employer-sponsored skilled worker applications from a diverse range of operators in the South West. This was both a 21 per cent increase on the previous financial year and the greatest number certified in any previous year on record.

The top five occupations sponsored by South West organisations were in the engineering, hospitality and medical industries.

Other ways we invested in knowledge, enterprise and innovation

• Continued to facilitate and develop the South West Creative Cluster, a network to support people in the smart and creative industries
• Supported the second stage of a research project into the genetics, habitat and viability of Bunbury's dolphin population
• Led a project into the supply/costs and industry demand for water in the Upper Collie Wellington Dam