Trade Capabilities


The diverse trade capabilities of New South Wales companies are contributing to meeting the increasing demands for services in the fast growing regions of Shanghai and the Pearl River Delta. Sydney and New South Wales companies are also playing a role in the Central Government's program to boost economic growth in the inland provinces

Mineral resources

New South Wales is a leading low-cost producer of a range of metals and minerals including coal, gold, copper, silver, lead, zinc and gemstones. It is a major exporter of coal, gold, zinc, copper, steel and aluminium.

Major companies involved in mineral production in New South Wales include Barrick, BHP Billiton, Newcrest, Rio Tinto and Xstrata.

Business and financial services

The financial services industry in New South Wales includes:

  • banking and insurance
  • non-bank financial services such as building societies
  • the stock exchange and futures exchange
  • services to finance and insurance businesses.

Sydney is an Asia Pacific hub for banking and insurance, foreign exchange, equities, futures and managed funds and services to finance companies.

Highly experienced New South Wales companies involved in business and finance are ready to work with Chinese firms addressing the restructuring of China's financial services sector.

Education and training

New South Wales has 11 universities and over 100 technical and further education colleges providing quality education and training to local and international students.

China is Australia's top source of overseas students, with more than half of these students studying in New South Wales. Universities in New South Wales also offer executive training programs to Chinese government officials, including distance education and training.

Information and communications technology

With its large information and communications technology (ICT) industry in terms of total revenue ($31 billion a year), New South Wales is well placed to meet China's needs arising from its entry into the World Trade Organisation.

Sydney also has a strong contract manufacturing and repair industry servicing the ICT sector in Australia and the Asia Pacific. The supply of quality multilingual technicians and regular direct air links to all the major Asia Pacific cities provide a sound basis for international companies operating in the Asia Pacific to select Sydney as their regional hub for service and repair.

Qantas offers non-stop services between Australia and Shanghai, and launched flights between Sydney and Beijing in January 2006. These services provide a significant boost to business travel and tourism in China and Australia.

Life science and biomedical

Sydney is among the world's most attractive locations for life science operations. Key life science strengths in New South Wales include:

  • pharmaceutical operations
  • bioscience alliances
  • human therapeutics
  • platform technology
  • diagnostics and biologics
  • clinical trials
  • complementary medicines
  • biomedical devices and technology.

New South Wales has the highest level of business research and development investment in medical and health sciences in Australia. New South Wales accounts for 44 per cent of Australian business investment in medical and health sciences.

More than 600 medical device companies currently operate in Australia. Of these, about half are located in New South Wales.

Construction and design

The New South Wales building, construction and design industry is the strongest in Australia and one of the State's key export industries. Many New South Wales construction and design companies gained outstanding experience in large infrastructure projects for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

This expertise is readily transferable to China, with several New South Wales companies involved in projects for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

New South Wales companies with this expertise and experience are also well placed to meet Shanghai's development of a new site for World Expo 2010 and the 2010 Asian Games in Guangdong.

Environment protection and services

New South Wales is the hub of the environmental industry in Australia. The industry has expertise in:

  • solid and toxic waste management and technology
  • air pollution monitoring and control
  • "green energy"
  • environment protection and management
  • supply of innovative water and wastewater management solutions
  • clearing contaminated sites.

New South Wales environmental companies are already working with Chinese business partners to reduce water, air and solid waste pollution in China.

Transport

New South Wales has renowned expertise in traffic planning and traffic control and management, which played an important role in the success of the Sydney Olympic Games. This expertise is a combination of advanced technology, efficient data collection and processing, and a focus on providing proactive transport management.

The internationally recognised urban traffic control system, the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS), was developed in New South Wales. This software manages road traffic in urban centres by co-ordinating and monitoring the operation of a wide range of traffic control devices. SCATS is well known in China where it has been used in several cities.

Agribusiness

New South Wales has a number of natural advantages including clean, disease-free growing conditions and a diversity of soil types, topography and climates, which allow the agricultural industry to produce a range of high quality, low cost raw materials. New South Wales is exporting these materials, including cotton and oil seeds, to meet China's growing demand.

New South Wales has a large food processing industry which accounts for about one third of Australia's processed food production, investment and research and development.

New South Wales' world class, value-added agribusiness is well placed to contribute to China's reforms to meet international standards in food production, processing, packaging and handling.




Industry & Investment NSW
Sydney Australia