DYNAMIC Australian PhD students will have the opportunity to compete in a 24-hour entrepreneurship challenge to design an innovative and profitable start-up concept.

The inaugural Australian-French Entrepreneurship Challenge planned for 2‑3 June 2016 at The Australian National University (ANU) is based on a flagship event run in France since 2011 by the French National Association for Research and Technology, and Novancia Business School.

In Australia, the event will be highlighted as part of a series of innovative and creative meetings, Créative France.

A call for applications for the Challenge was announced today by Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP, and His Excellency Mr. Christophe Lecourtier, Ambassador of France to Australia.

“I encourage today’s PhD candidates to embrace the Challenge as an opportunity to develop the business development skills required to thrive in a global market and be effective drivers of tomorrow’s innovation,” said Mr Pyne.

“The two-day challenge will give students in any field of the natural sciences, including earth, chemical or biological sciences; technology; engineering; or medicine, or in the humanities or social sciences, an opportunity to leverage their scientific knowledge to broaden their entrepreneurial skills."

Successful applicants will work in teams and be supported by expert mentors in the lead up to the challenge.

“In line with the objectives of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, the Challenge will give students from around Australia an opportunity to engage with Australian and French innovators who have first‑hand experience in successful global innovation – from skills on what’s required to become a successful entrepreneur to how they can contribute to boosting the global competitiveness of our research and industries.”

Ambassador Lecourtier expressed his support for Australia’s interest in co-organising this new event.

“Australia and France are world-class research performers and both deliver excellent science. We strongly share the view that enhanced cooperation between academia and industry is key to deliver on the innovation agenda. International partnering is crucial in this area, bringing in the new opportunities that can generate sound economic and societal impact”, Ambassador Lecourtier said.

“One member of the successful team will be selected to fly to France to experience first-hand the country’s thrilling innovation ecosystem and build on the international networks and linkages initiated during the challenge.”

The Australian-French Entrepreneurship Challenge is co-organised by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science and the Culture, Education, Science and Technology section of the French Embassy, with support from the Australian and French governments, ANU and the Australian Academy of Science.

Interested applicants can find more information at https://www.science.org.au/opportunities/travel/grants-and-exchange.

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INTERNATIONAL co-operative business leaders, representing a US$3 trillion global market met in Sydney on March 2 to discuss the sector’s opportunities and challenges into the future.

The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), the peak body for co-operatives globally meets in Sydney this week for the first time in the organisation’s 120 year history.

“Globally, co-operative firms represent a billion members, three million business and 250 million jobs which signifies the power of this business sector," said Melina Morrison, CEO of the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals.

“The co-operative sector plays a vital economic and social role in communities, towns and cities across the world and here in Australia. Following the financial crisis, diversification of economies is key to stabilising economies in periods of market volatility.”

The Alliance is headed by Monique Leroux, CEO of Desjardin Group, Canada’s largest financial
co-operative with $229 billion in assets and over 7 million members.

Other members of the ICA Board include the leaders of the largest co-operative medical system in the world (Unimed – Brazil) and a peak body providing 12 percent of the US with energy (National Rural Electric Cooperative Association) and a Chinese organisation representing 160 million households (All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Co-operatives).

In an interview with the ABC’s The Business programme, Ms Leroux identified major growth opportunities for the co-operative sector in banking, insurance, agri-food and energy sectors.

Greg Wall, Group CEO of automotive co-operative Capricorn Society also sits on the global board as the first Australian representative.

“As the national peak body for the sector here in Australia, we are delighted to welcome the International Co-operative Alliance delegation to Australia," Ms Morrison said.

www.bccm.coop

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POST-CHRISTMAS sales, back to school, and warm weather fired up the Australian retail sector in January, according to the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Retail Trade data for January 2016 showing year on year growth of four percent.

ARA Executive Director, Russell Zimmerman, expressed hope that the January sales increase will set the pace for the coming year, with Australian retailers crossing their fingers for a buoyant 2016.

January’s four percent growth year on year growth is identical to that of December 2015, and reflects a total retail spend by of Aussies of $24.8 billion for the month.

Year on year figures provide the most accurate measure of the sector’s performance and are the figures used by most retail businesses in their own reporting. January 2016 sales showed a 0.3 percent increase over December 2015’s static result.

“The first month of 2016 experienced a healthy level of growth, well in line with the ARA’s expectations,” said Mr Zimmerman. “While this is a great start to the new year, what we really would like to see is sustained, incremental rises in retail sales.

“Retailers are now coming off the strongest trading period of the year, being December and January, and maintaining the momentum of Christmas and post-Christmas is vital,” he said.

The biggest winners in the January spending stakes were household goods and other retailing, with 5.8 percent and 4.8 percent growth respectively. Clothing, footwear, and personal accessories were hot on their heels at 4.7 percent rise.

“Post-Christmas sales, and parents and children preparing for the new school year are responsible for the bulk of January’s growth. Balmy summer temperatures combined with some January discounts on summer season apparel also contributed to the boost,” said Mr Zimmerman.

Department stores had the smallest increase, at one percent, coming off the back of very pleasing five percent year on year growth in December.

State-wise, the ACT saw a tremendous increase of an unprecedented 7.7 percent – a level not seen since June 2015. NSW beat out rival, Victoria, with the two posting rises of 5.2 percent and five percent respectively.

“Victoria has been the forerunner when it comes to retail sales growth for the past few months, and to have the ACT demonstrate such a considerable increase is wonderful news, given it follows on from handful of slower months,” he said.

YEAR ON YEAR RETAIL GROWTH (January 2015 to January 2016 seasonally adjusted)

By category:

Food, four percent; household goods, 5.8 percent; clothing, footwear and personal accessories, 4.7 percent; department stores, one percent; other retailing, 4.8 percent; cafés, restaurants and takeaway foods, two percent.

By state:

NSW, 5.2 percent; Victoria, five percent; Queensland, 2.4 percent; South Australia, 4.2 percent; Western Australia, 1.3 percent; Tasmania, 4.7 percent; Northern Territory, 4.7 percent; and Australian Capital Territory, 7.7 percent.

About the Australian Retailers Association:

Founded in 1903, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is the retail industry’s peak representative body representing Australia’s more than $300 billion sector, which employs more than 1.2 million people. The ARA works to ensure retail success by informing, protecting, advocating, educating and saving money for its 5,000 independent and national retail members throughout Australia. For more information, visit www.retail.org.au or call 1300 368 041.

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AUSTRALIA's GDP, in seasonally adjusted chain volume terms, grew 0.6 percent in the December quarter 2015, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The growth in expenditure was driven by a rise of 0.8 percent in Household final consumption expenditure and a rise of 6.0 percent in Public gross fixed capital formation. These were partially offset by a fall in private business investment (-3.3 percent), driven by a fall in new engineering construction (-12.3 percent). 

The growth in Household final consumption was reflected in the service industries of Information, media and telecommunications (2.7 percent), and Retail trade (1.0 percent). Other industries that had significant growth were Rental, hiring and real estate (2.8 percent) and Wholesale trade (1.6 percent).

The December quarter saw the Terms of trade decrease 3.2 percent in seasonally adjusted terms.

Further details can be found in Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, (cat no. 5206.0) available for download from the ABS website www.abs.gov.au.

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AMMA chief executive Steve Knott has welcomed the end of the Fair Work Commission controversy.

"Like many organisations heavily engaged with Australia’s workplace relations system, AMMA has noted with interest the circumstances involving former Fair Work Commission (FWC) Vice President Michael Lawler and has held concerns about the potential damage the controversy was causing the Commission’s integrity and credibility," Mr Knott said.

"Following Minister for Employment Michaelia Cash’s statement yesterday announcing Mr Lawler’s resignation from the FWC, AMMA welcomes the conclusion of this matter. While this has generated a lot of interest in various quarters, we should not lose sight of the fact that these issues may involve individuals dealing with serious mental health challenges," he said.

"AMMA trusts that persons making public commentary on this matter remain cognisant of this, and that the necessary support mechanisms are available to the individuals concerned."

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WHILE acknowledging the Government’s Innovation Statement, the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) is using its 2016 pre-Budget submission to encourage the Government to support innovative small to medium enterprises (SMEs).

“Australia needs sound public policy to be developed to encourage innovation amongst small to medium enterprises (SMEs), said IPA chief executive officer, Andrew Conway.

“Around 10 per cent of Australian businesses produce innovative goods and services, while between 16 and 21 per cent innovate in their underlying business processes.

“Even if Australian SMEs are not the initial investors or innovators, they can still capture some of the value of innovations developed elsewhere.

“New-to-country, and particularly new-to-firm, innovations are often more economically important for improving national productivity.  Innovation policy should include measures to encourage the diffusion and uptake of existing innovations to a broad range of firms, as well as encouraging new innovations.

“Firms that can adopt continuous improvement methods to imbed incremental innovation can generate large productivity improvements.

“SMEs are an excellent starting point. Large firms often find it hard to change their business model to capture value, but SMEs can change them more easily.

“Accordingly, public innovation policy should encourage value capture and business model innovation more generally.  It is important that regulation helps firms capture value while balancing the benefits other firms receive from the wider diffusion of value.

“Talent not technology is the key.  Without addressing wider skills requirements, research indicates it is likely to create bottlenecks downstream in the innovation process.

“We believe that government plays an important role. They can provide strong research and development support, enabling better linkages between cutting edge universities and industry; provide support to firms to adapt existing technologies and innovation; and, encourage firms to develop their ability to search for new options, evaluate them and successfully implement and adapt them to their specific context,” said Mr Conway. 

For further detail refer to the IPA’s pre-Budget submission for 2016-17 on the IPA website at http://bit.ly/1PVGJX7

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THE IDEA of ‘value capture’ will be front and centre when the House Infrastructure, Transport and Cities Committee hears from witnesses at a public hearing for its inquiry into the role of transport connectivity on stimulating development and economic activity.

Committee Chair, Mr John Alexander MP, said the Committee is very interested in exploring the need to promote transport connectivity to stimulate economic development and options to finance transport infrastructure, especially value capture.

“Value capture covers a range of mechanisms by which governments can capture increases in asset values brought about by improvements in transport infrastructure in order to pay for those improvements,” Mr Alexander said.

Mr Alexander highlighted the importance of transport connectivity to the productivity of the Australian economy, the liveability of Australia’s cities and the development of regional Australia.

“I believe that better transport connectivity, especially in the form of High Speed Rail, will promote the integrated development of Australia’s cities and regions, bringing them much closer together by drastically reducing travel times,” he said.

“Finding the right mechanism to finance this—such as value capture—is essential to our future development.”

In its submission, the Committee for Sydney stated that it is vital to use value capture in public transport, because without it there is a financing gap in the ongoing operations of public transport, and that, the other benefit of value capture is that it encourages integration of land use and transport planning.

Hearing details

Date: Monday, 7 March 2016
Time: 9:00am–4:15pm
Witnesses:

• The Committee for Sydney (Submission 25)
• Strategex Pty Ltd (Submission 5)
• Shopping Centre Council of Australia (Submission 44)
• Financial-Architects Asia (Submission 27)
• Transport Associates (Submission 38)
• Consult Australia (Submission 13)
• Property Council of Australia (Submission 61)
• Bus Industry Confederation of Australia (Submission 4)
• Associate Professor Philip Laird (Submission 15)
• LUTI Consulting (Submission 7)

Venue: Meeting Room 1, Commonwealth Parliament Offices, Level 21, 1 Bligh St Sydney
The public hearing will be webcast live at http://www.aph.gov.au/live

Due to the security arrangements in place at these offices, members of the media and public interested in attending this hearing should register their interest with the secretariat before midday on Friday 4 March on (02) 6277 2352 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Further background information on the inquiry, including the full terms of reference and how to prepare a submission, can be obtained from the Committee’s website at www.aph.gov.au/itc or from the Secretariat on (02) 6277 2352 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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TOWNSVILLE Enterprise chairman Kevin Gill said his organisation believed everything possible must be done to keep the doors of Queensland Nickel open.

"With much uncertainty around the future of Queensland Nickel (QNI) now is the time all levels of government must come together to keep the doors of QNI open and to save hundreds of jobs," Mr Gill said.

"Under no circumstances can the doors of QNI be allowed to close without every option being explored. No stone must be left unturned.

"Unemployment is a serious issue. We all know that the economy is vulnerable," he said.

"All levels of governments must stand shoulder to shoulder and do whatever is needed to find a solution to save the 550 jobs in jeopardy and the livelihoods of families.

"QNI contributes $1.3 billion into the local economy annually – once its gone, that’s it."

He said Townsville Enterprise had spoken with the State Government to urge it to explore all options to keep QNI afloat.

"The Government must lead this process – it has levers that it can pull if necessary," Mr Gill said.

www.tel.com.au

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