Newsboard

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1 APRIL 2011

INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS

Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) is regarded as one of the key events in the year for the international water industry. In recent times, Australian companies have ramped up their participation because of the range of overseas companies and customer groups that attend.

This year, SIWW will be held between 5 and 7 July.

Austrade has identified SIWW as a major event and has organised an Australian pavilion. This has the full support of waterAUSTRALIA and I would encourage any company with an interest in exports and international business and connections to consider participating in the event. Austrade has put together a very affordable package.

The Australian water story is very well regarded internationally and is being further promoted behind the waterAUSTRALIA brand. On the recent G’Day USA water mission, participating companies provided feedback that the mission was successful for them because they were visibly part of Team Australia. They were seen as part of the successful Australian water story. The Australian pavilion at SIWW will be co-branded with waterAUSTRALIA.

The Austrade brochure can be downloaded here.

If you are interested in attending, please contact us.

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MERGER NOT PROCEEDING

Some time ago, we advised that waterAUSTRALIA had entered into merger discussions with South Australia’s Water Industry Alliance.  From waterAUSTRALIA’s perspective, we felt that the Australian water sector would benefit from this merger by combining a national water brand and associated market focussed activities with the industry development activities conducted by the Water Industry Alliance. We also judged it would avert possible duplication and even competition for members.

While the Directors of both organisations have made substantial progress towards the merger, a small number of significant differences in philosophy about structural issues have proven a bridge too difficult to cross.  In addition, the Water Industry Alliance is seeking to expand into the wider Cleantech space for which it is seeking further government funding. waterAUSTRALIA also had resolved not to proceed with the merger as we felt it was time to get on with our main task of supporting the industry.

Nevertheless, we would like to find some way of collaborating so that we avoid overlaps and can complement each other’s work with the industry.  To ensure we did not complicate matters for Alliance member companies in South Australia, we have not, to date, communicated with them or formally invited them to become members of waterAUSTRALIA. We have yet to resolve how best to make our programs available to Alliance members and we will discuss this with the Water Industry Alliance.

During our discussions, we learned more about each other’s business models, which are perhaps not as similar as first thought. waterAUSTRALIA is confident that our organisations can co-exist for the benefit of the wider industry. We wish the Alliance all the best for the future.

waterAUSTRALIA will, for our part, concentrate in building a national brand for the Australian water sector.  It will promote the brand in key markets.  We will continue to work closely with the Commonwealth Government’s Water Supplier Advocate, the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Austrade, the Industry Capability Network as well as with state governments to address issues such as barriers being experienced by the industry in the domestic market and to promote the industry to domestic and international customer groups and to facilitate a growth in sales for the sector.  We are progressing with all of these initiatives and the early results, particularly from the G’Day USA Mission, are encouraging.

We will be reporting on these activities in more detail in the near future.

Les Targ (CEO)

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