The NSW government has launched a new taskforce to help small and medium ICT service vendors do business with government.

Customer service minister Victor Dominello says the new ICT and digital sovereign procurement taskforce will establish a greater diversity of digital and ICT service providers and suppliers who engage with the state government.

“It’s all about levelling the playing field and ensuring small and medium enterprises can compete on an equal footing,” Mr Dominello said.

“The NSW Government has committed $1.6 billion to transforming government services and this investment will help local small and medium enterprises and start-ups to grow, building critical sovereign capability for the future here in NSW.”

Small Business Minister Damien Tudehope says the taskforce will look at ways to increase spend on small and medium enterprises, Aboriginal organisations, disability enterprises, and start-ups, stimulating the local digital economy and extending it through regional NSW.

“We should always be looking at ways to make sure these businesses are getting more government work,” Mr Tudehope said.

The review will focus on:

• definition of sovereign procurement, in particular what is an SME
• building a current baseline on ICT and digital sovereign procurement and spend
• setting measurable targets for ICT and digital sovereign procurement and spend
• barriers to achieving measurable targets
• assessing effectiveness and target outcomes of current ICT and digital procurement initiatives
• assessing effectiveness and target outcomes of current technology sector growth initiatives
• assessing effectiveness and target outcomes of current social procurement policies
• strategies and policies to bridge the identified gaps in achieving the targets.

More information, including providing a submission to be on the Taskforce, is available here.