Month: March 2020

Google cloud lands in Australia

by

Australia – It’s not just a great place to come for A Holiday… It’s also a FANTASTIC place to do business…


Here’s Why:

Education, innovation and science underpin Australia’s economic prosperity and job creation.

Australia’s highly educated, multilingual and multicultural workforce has an entrepreneurial spirit. The country has world-leading capabilities in blockchain and quantum computing, and its robust startup ecosystem has strong competencies in agtech, edtech, fintech, foodtech and medtech.

The country is:

  • ranked 5th in the world for global entrepreneurship, with almost half of all Australian firms active in innovation
  • involved in cutting-edge research, contributing to over 4% of world research publications in 2017 despite having only 0.3% of the world’s population
  • a highly skilled nation, where over 40% of the workforce has a tertiary qualification
  • culturally diverse and multilingual, where 28% of the population was born overseas and 3.2 million Australians speak an Asian language and 1.4 million speak a European language.

Australia’s intellectual capital, commercial focus and collaborative approach make it an ideal partner for business and investment activities.

Minister Taylor said the delegation aims to ensure that Australia becomes an international hub for cyber security innovation and investment.

The Australia Benchmark Report provides five key reasons for investing in Australia – Robust Economy,
Dynamic Industries, Innovation and Skills, Global Ties and Strong Foundations – and compares Australia’s
credentials with other countries.

Charts can be downloaded and saved as images for use in reports and presentations
(when using please reference www.austrade.gov.in)


DID YOU KNOW?

Australia was the second country in the world to grant women the right to vote; this occurred in 1894.

Source: https://www.austrade.gov.au/International/Invest/Why-Australia/Innovation-and-Skills/innovation-and-skills

HR Tech Startup Launches a Recruitment Revolution

by
Australia – It’s not just a great place to come for A Holiday… It’s also a FANTASTIC place to do business…

Here’s why:

The founders of HR tech startup myInterview want to revolutionise recruitment. With support from the Landing Pads program, they are well on their way.

When the founders of Australian startup myInterview left high school and began university, they didn’t expect to have such a hard time finding a part-time job. With many people applying for each role, Guy Abelsohn and Benjamin Gillman found it impossible to differentiate themselves through a traditional resume.

This sparked the idea for myInterview, which they launched in 2014. myInterview helps employers hire the right people with a customisable one-way video interview solution.

Abelsohn and Gillman’s goal is to transform the recruitment process by bringing candidates’ applications to life and showing the people behind the paper, while making the whole process faster and more efficient.

Employers post ‘interviews’ on myInterview’s secure platform, including a company video, a role description and up to 10 text or video questions. When applying for a role, candidates have 30 seconds to review each question before recording a response. myInterview also delivers a Video Apply Widget that authenticates cover letters by giving candidates the opportunity to pitch themselves for a job in person.

In 2016, Abelsohn and Gillman began planning a research and development centre in Tel Aviv to underpin further technology development and business growth. To support this endeavour, they applied for the Tel Aviv Landing Pad as part of the Landing Pads program.

‘There’s so much tech going on in Tel Aviv, it’s quite mind-blowing,’ says Gillman, who is currently basedin the coastal city. ‘We wanted to tap into both the talent and the investment, as well as the time zone, which makes it easier to do business with Europe and the US. The Landing Pad was a great way to do that.’ As part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, Austrade has established five Landing Pads in Berlin, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore and Tel Aviv. Landing Pads supports market-ready startups/scaleups to go global.

Participants are given an operational base at a Landing Pad for up to 90 days, where they benefit from Austrade’s extensive global network of contacts and tailored business development assistance.

A world-leading startup ecosystem In November 2016, the myInterview team arrived in Tel Aviv. Gillman was on the ground full-time for 90 days while Abelsohn visited throughout. They were housed at SOSA (South of Salame), a vibrant four-storey space and community founded by a group of innovation stakeholders, including some of Israel’s most prominent angel and venture capital investors.

Abelsohn and Gillman arrived with a clear plan to access expertise from key advisors, investors, CEOs and CTOs that would allow them to refine their business model and technology. They wanted to take things to the next level and ensure their technology was cutting-edge.

‘SOSA is an amazing resource,’ says Gillman. ‘There’s a huge buzz around it. We had the German Government come through last week and the President [Frank-Walter Steinmeier] was here. It’s really one of the greatest hubs in this country.’

myInterview had access to an extensive range of experts and events, as well as onsite value creation associates who connect startups with valuable contacts. They also received one-on-one support from the Austrade Landing Pad Manager, Omri Wislizki.

‘Omri basically acts as your business development guy,’ says Abelsohn. ‘We call him “the super connector”, because he can open doors into all types of companies. Without that support it probably would have taken us six month to familiarise ourselves with the landscape.’

Forging powerful connections Through the Landing Pad, myInterview connected with major global tech companies, potential corporate partners and venture capitalists, and raised enough capital to expand its R&D efforts.

‘I had a casual chat with about 20 venture capitalists in the space of two months, which is huge,’ says Gillman. ‘Those meetings usually take months to get, and here I could sit down and speak to them in a matter of minutes.’

The myInterview team has since launched a new line of business, which involves using analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to rank candidates based on factors including what they say, their tone of voice and their confidence level.

‘We would never have taken this new direction without the influence of the people we met through SOSA and the Landing Pad,’ says Gillman.

They also hired three people, two based in Tel Aviv and one in the Ukraine, taking their team to five.

Going global In the months after completing the Landing Pads program, myInterview was accepted into the 12-week Slingshot HR Tech accelerator program, supported by recruitment giants Seek and Hudson.

Abelsohn and Gillman are focused on continuing to develop their technology and enhancing its capabilities to integrate with HR management software. This will allow them to access a global customer base.

‘The Landing Pad is an opportunity that enables you to look at the bare bones of your business and be able to see what is needed to go global,’ says Gillman. ‘You get access to people that you couldn’t get access to otherwise. Ultimately we’re in a much stronger position from participating in this program.

‘I’d recommend people take the opportunity because it can really accelerate your business.’



Source: https://www.australiaunlimited.com/landingpads/news/case-studies/hr-tech-startup-launches-a-recruitment-revolution?utm_campaign=MD-MI-Export+Update+June+2017&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Export+Update+Newsletter



DID YOU KNOW: The most widely said Australianisms are “no worries” (74 per cent of Australians have used this phrase), “arvo” (73 per cent), and “G’day” (71 per cent).

Putting Australia’s cyber security on the global stage

by

Australia – It’s not just a great place to come for A Holiday… It’s also a FANTASTIC place to do business…

Here’s Why:

A delegation of more than 60 cyber security industry leaders will put Australian expertise on the global stage in a visit to the United States that will build transnational partnerships to fight cybercrime.

Led by the Minister for Law Enforcement and Cyber Security Angus Taylor, the delegation aims to advance Australia’s technology and cyber security industries.

“A strong innovation culture, excellence in research and development, robust regulation and supportive government policies all increase Australia’s appeal as a location to develop and test new cyber security solutions,” Mr Ciobo said.

“There are huge opportunities to grow Australia’s industry over the next decade and this visit to the US is designed to help unlock some of that potential.”

Minister Taylor said the delegation aims to ensure that Australia becomes an international hub for cyber security innovation and investment.

“This delegation builds on Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy to develop closer international partnerships, grow the domestic cyber security market, and direct investment to ensure Australian companies receive the support they need to tackle global cyber security challenges,” Mr Taylor said.

“With the growth of new technologies, including data analytics and Internet of Things, comes new cyber threats, so we need to ensure our technology and expertise to fight cybercrime is more sophisticated than ever before.”

Organised by Austrade and the Australian Cyber Security Growth Network (AustCyber), the delegation includes expertise across a range of solutions, including quantum encryption, endpoint protection and threat intelligence.

The delegation will attend from 16 to 20 April the RSA Conference in San Francisco, the world’s largest cyber security event, and promote their products to investors and potential partners.

Delegates will be joined by five cyber security startups undertaking residency at the San Francisco Landing Pad, part of the Turnbull Government’s program assisting Australian entrepreneurs.

A smaller delegation will also travel to Washington DC for defence industry meetings.

Recognising strong cyber security as a foundation for economic growth and prosperity, the Turnbull Government launched the National Cyber Security Strategy in 2016, outlining initiatives to support innovation, grow businesses, promote exports and ensure research and development efforts match industry needs.

DID YOU KNOW?

Approximately 40% of the world’s population has an internet connection in 2018. In 1995, it was less than 1%.

Source: Media Release from The Hon Steven Ciobo MP, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment and the Hon Angus Taylor MP, Minister for Law Enforcement and Cyber Security

Australian blockchain delegation heads to New York

by
Australia – It’s not just a great place to come for A Holiday… It’s also a FANTASTIC place to do business…

Here’s Why:Australia’s blockchain capabilities and technologies will be showcased to global leaders and investors at Consensus 2017 in New York from 22-24 May.

A 26-member Australian delegation will be heading to the event to present globally competitive and innovative solutions across the spectrum of industry applications, from digital currencies and payments to agricultural supply chains, smart contracts and identity management.

Consensus 2017, now in its third year, has become a landmark event on the blockchain calendar. The event attracts global professionals from leading industry startups, investors, financial institutions, and academic and policy groups who are building the foundations of the blockchain and digital currency economy.

Nicola Watkinson, Austrade’s Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner, USA and Canada said, the mission to Consensus 2017 provides a unique platform to profile Australia as a global leader in the testing and development of blockchain technology and standards, and position Australia as an attractive investment destination.

‘New York City is also a hotbed for blockchain technology, management and innovation. From digital currencies, to payments, decentralised energy to smart contracts and cloud storage, New York City is a vital research, development and deployment market for disruptive technology,’ said Watkinson.

Blockchain technology has attracted increasing global attention due to its ability to disrupt existing business models and processes. This emerging technology has the potential to build trust, reduce cost and accelerate secure transactions across a range of sectors.

By using cryptography, blockchains can allow multiple parties to keep private information private, while remaining publicly auditable, providing a foundation for multi-party trust.

Blockchain technology is also increasingly becoming a viable tool for financial services startups and large corporations. ‘Australia is well positioned to provide global leadership and has become a pioneer in proof-of-concept and adoption of blockchain technologies. Australian financial institutions, in particular, stand in a globally competitive position,’ added Watkinson.

Just this month, the Australian Government announced its intent to eliminate Bitcoin double tax in its 2017 Budget. Specifically, it will seek to align the GST treatment of digital currencies such as Bitcoin with regular currencies in a bid to promote the growth of Australia’s fintech industry.

‘Australian corporates are also embracing blockchain technology. All four major Australian banks have blockchain innovation programs that have already delivered successful proofs of concept,’ said Nicholas Giurietto, Chief Executive of the Australian Digital Currency and Commerce Association.

‘Commercial deployment of a blockchain-based solution by one or more players in the finance sector is likely within the next 12 months.’

The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), is another embracing blockchain technology, evaluating replacement options for its clearing, settlement and asset registration with broader plans to become the first exchange in the world to upgrade to post-trade services using the technology.

Also, Standards Australia is leading the development of International Blockchain Standards as Chair and Secretariat for the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) technical committee on blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. ‘In March this year, Standards Australia released its Roadmap for Blockchain Standards Report which outlined how the organisation will work to deliver measures to support the privacy, security and interoperability of blockchain systems globally,’ said Dr Bronwyn Evans Standards Australia Chief Executive Officer.

‘It is this stewardship which demonstrates Australia’s global leadership in the world of blockchain and further underpins our participation at Consensus,’ added Watkinson.

Consensus 2017 will feature more than 100 speakers and 2,000 attendees representing over 800 companies from 35 countries.

The Australian blockchain delegation to Consensus 2017, is an initiative of Austrade, Data61 and the State Governments of New South Wales and Victoria, with the support of the Australian Digital Currency and Commerce Association.

With a network of six offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago and Houston, Austrade is well placed to assist Australian businesses.

Visit Austrade’s US Market Profile for more information about doing business in the United States.

Source: https://www.austrade.gov.au/news/latest-from-austrade/2017/australian-blockchain-delegation-heads-to-new-york

DID YOU KNOW

Back in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto conceptualized the first blockchain. The following year, he used it as a core component of the digital currency, bitcoin.

WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation enters into force

by
Australia – It’s not just a great place to come for A Holiday… It’s also a FANTASTIC place to do business…

Here’s Why: The entry into force of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade Facilitation will make exporting easier for Australian businesses and drive job creation. The Agreement frees up the movement of goods across international borders by reducing red tape and the burden of administrative costs associated with trade.

It minimises and streamlines customs processes, and improves transparency about rules affecting international trade, making it easier for Australian businesses to export.

The Peterson Institute estimates the Agreement could increase global GDP by USD $1 trillion per annum and create 21 million jobs.

The Agreement is designed to ensure Australia’s exports spend less time being held up in inefficient customs procedures overseas. It will complement the gains Australia has made through its free trade agreements with China, Japan and Korea.

The OECD has estimated that full implementation of the Agreement on Trade Facilitation could reduce trade costs by more than 10 per cent for OECD countries, and globally by between 12.5 per cent and 17.5 per cent.

The Turnbull Government played a leading role in pushing for the early ratification of the Agreement, including through the provision of assistance to developing countries and hosting a global conference on

Trade Facilitation in Sydney in December 2016.

This is the first new agreement among all WTO Members in more than 20 years.

DID YOU KNOW

The WTO is the only international agency overseeing the rules of international trade. It polices free trade agreements, settles trade disputes between governments and organises trade negotiations.

Australia has experienced the longest period of economic growth in the developed world

by
Australia – It’s not just a great place to come for A Holiday… It’s also a FANTASTIC place to do business… Here’s why:

Australia’s economy grew a strong 1.1 per cent in the fourth quarter (Q4), lifting Australia’s annual economic growth to 2.5 per cent in 2016, according to the latest National Accounts figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The latest result is a positive sign that our economy has maintained the solid momentum that has already delivered Australia 26 years of uninterrupted economic growth. More dramatically, I estimate that Australia now holds the record for the longest period of recession-free growth for a developed country.

Australia is the only country in the developed world with a period of uninterrupted economic growth that long, based on the informal definition that a recession requires two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. In other words, all of the other 34 member countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have experienced at least one period of two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth since 1991, with many economies experiencing two episodes of negative growth during that period: one in 2001 following the collapse of the Dot.Com bubble; and one in the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

The period since 1991 is the longest period of growth that Australia has recorded for at least the past 50 years and has seen the economy register an average growth rate of 3.2 per cent per annum. The next longest period during which year-end growth remained positive was for about ten years between 1962 and 1971. In the 1970s and 1980s, our growth phases lasted only seven or eight years before another recession hit.

On a quarter-to-quarter basis, the December 2016 national accounts figure represented the 98th positive growth rate since the economy commenced to recover in Q3 1991 following the two consecutive negative growth rates in Q1 and Q2 1991. By my count, Australia’s number of consecutive quarter’s positive growth has now exceeded all OECD member countries including Ireland (78 quarters between Q3 1986 and Q1 2007), Poland (77 since its data became available from Q2 1995), Netherlands (76 between Q4 1981 and Q1 2003) and South Korea (71 since the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998).

My estimates for Australia’s relative growth performance are based on the growth accounts assembled by the OECD, which are available here. This data shows only two other economies come close to matching Australia’s recent economic record. The first is Japan, where the total number of positive quarterly consecutive growth rates was 63 from Q1 1975 to Q1 1993, according to the OECD. Following the Arab oil embargo, Japan went into a severe recession with real GDP shrinking by 1.2 per cent in 1974. Note also that although no two consecutive negative growth numbers were reported on a quarterly basis between 1960 and 1974, Japan did suffer a sharp real GDP slump of 3.4 per cent in Q1 1974, then experienced a modest recovery of 0.7 per cent and 1.3 per cent in the following two quarters and fell again in the Q4 1974. The second example is the Netherlands. After a ten-year period of economic growth from 1983 to 2002, the Netherlands economy officially went into recession in 2003 with two consecutive negative growth rates reported in Q2 (-0.3 per cent) and Q3 (-0.014 per cent). Some other estimates of relative growth performance tend to treat this period as one of uninterrupted growth for the Netherlands, but a close look at the OECD’s data does show the two sequential drops in GDP volume required to trigger the definition of a technical recession, even if declines were very small.

Australia’s economic resilience over the past two decades has been the envy of many economies in the world. Australia sailed through the Asian economic crisis of 1997–98, prospered through the US stock market bust and recession of 2001 and continued to grow through the GFC of 2008–09. At the same time, we have comfortably outgrown our peer group of other developed economies over the post-crisis period. Overall, Australia’s real GDP grew by an annual average 2.7 per cent between 2012 and 2016. This rate was well above most major economies including the US, the UK (2.1 per cent per annum on average for both), Euro area (0.7 per cent per annum) and Japan (0.8 per cent per annum)[1].

Australia’s impressive performance over the past two and half decades has been largely attributed to a wide range of factors including economic reforms, strategic location in the booming Asian region, and strong population growth[2].

DID YOU KNOW: Australia is rated ‘triple A’ by all three global rating agencies and enjoys levels of net public debt that are among the lowest in the OECD. ______________________________ [1] Why Australia Benchmark Report 2017, chart: REAL GDP GROWTH BY ECONOMIC GROUPING, Page 6 [2] OECD.Stat & , United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects, the 2015 Revisions

Source: http://www.austrade.gov.au