By Paul Hemsley

Deputy NSW Premier, Andrew Stoner gave a talk at the CeBIT 2012 opening ceremony at the Sydney Opera House outlining the state government’s approach to dealing with business and industry, as well as announcing seven projects.

Mr Stoner said these projects range from digital services to improve the 21st century experience at cultural institutions; smart camera mobile technology to tackle art and museum exhibit theft; mobile location technology to assist bio-security officers in the field, technology to help streamline trade missions; and a platform to develop new mobile applications for government.

“For the second round of this program called Mobile Government, we’ve committed $1 million to develop mobile solutions to improve public sector productivity,” Mr Stoner said.

According to Mr Stoner, these seven projects expect to invest a total of $4 million and over the next three years create over 200 jobs and $80 million in revenue including $50 million in exports.

“That’s a pretty good return on a NSW Government investment of $1 million and an excellent example of the power of collaboration,” he said.

He said the NSW Government will be competing internationally targeting global growth markets.

The NSW Government will open an office in San Francisco in the “heart of Silicon Valley” to drive more high growth in international opportunities, Mr Stoner said.

This will be in addition to the government’s offices in China, India and the United Arab Emirates that “will drive business, trade and investment opportunities”.

He said in parallel to the NSW ICT Strategy 2012, Trade and Investment NSW has been working with industry taskforces, including a digital economy taskforce to develop ten year industry action plans to target growth in the global economy.

“We aim to build a high growth business eco system in NSW,” Mr Stoner said.

He said the government is adopting a new approach called the ‘Four Seeds’, which includes ‘connecting, capability building, competing internationally, and collaborating’.

“We’ll connect companies to the resources that they need, R&D, corporate partners, knowledge mentors and business networks.

“We’re already supporting technology and helping companies tap into knowledge networks such as Silicon Valley and supporting innovation events like Tech 23, to improve commercialisation efforts and encourage new investment,” Mr Stoner said.