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Proposed New PNG Work Visas

The PNG Government will soon debate amendments to ease restrictions on foreign skilled workers and technical specialists to allow speedier access to performing emergency repairs at project sites around the country. The Acting Prime Minister Sir Puka Temu spoke of the changes this week announcing the National Executive Council had approved this new class of visa to be known as the Restricted Employment Visa (REV). It is hoped that this initiative will improve productivity in major resource projects and is supported by the business community.

‘My View’ by Graham Poon – The Cairns Post

 Opportunity requires caution too!

Although tourism will always be a critically important part of the Cairns economy, and rightly so, it is recognised that this economy needs to be diversified. The GFC certainly highlighted this point. With tourism down this glorious city went into a tailspin from which we are only now clawing our way out of. Many economic opportunities are waiting for us and engaging overseas markets is an important part of our diversification. I will mention two areas to think about.

The most obvious one is right on our doorstep and it is servicing the needs of PNG. The much publicised LNG project which is now starting up has numbers attached that are mind-boggling. The project cost is around $12Bn, it will double the GDP of PNG and the country’s exports will triple. Cairns is only a bit over an hour’s flying time to Port Moresby and we are the logical supply centre for all kinds of services from our reservoir of tropical expertise. We can provide tropical building design, engineering services in water and waste, health services, environmental management, remote energy solutions and so the list goes on. We also should not forget that PNG is a lot more than the LNG project. For instance, there are numerous mining projects (you can check with the Cairns Chamber’s Resource Task Force for the opportunities available) and PNG is the largest recipient of Australia’s AusAID funding in the world. AusAID assists in such areas as health, education, training, infrastructure, agriculture and the law. Give me a call at TropLinks if you wish to know how to engage with AusAID. It’s a process but it’s a very interesting way to engage with PNG.

The other logical market for Cairns is the island of Guam and its neighbours in Micronesia. Again the figures are very large. There is a projected spend of over $10Bn in the next 5-6 years with the impending military build-up resulting from the relocation of  around 8000 US troops and their families from Okinawa. Many of the services mentioned above are applicable to Guam too. Apart from a place to do business, Guam is also a great place to visit. It’s a picturesque island with fun shopping, friendly Chamorro people and easily accessible via a 4 hour direct flight out of Cairns.

Feel like jumping on a plane to do business in these markets? It all sounds great but take the time to do your export planning and research these important questions before you book your airfare:

1. Do I have the capability and financial resources to develop business in a particular overseas market? Nothing happens overnight, you have to develop relationships over time.
2. Am I confident of getting paid for my goods or services? THE critical question!
3. Do I want to do business in a different culture? Cultural norms can be very diverse and though Australia has deep linkages to PNG, one  needs great understanding about how business methods work there.
4. Am I willing to research an overseas buyer’s needs and adapt my offering to what they want? In Guam, they are used to US standards and don’t even try to talk millimeters, they want feet and inches.

I’m a great advocate of diversification of our economy through overseas engagement and it’s so important for our future in Cairns but always consider the question: Is export right for the bottom-line of my business?

Article written by Graham Poon and published by the Cairns Post, 26 April 2010.

‘My View’ by Graham Poon – The Cairns Post

The 3 secrets to business success in tough times

It is projected that times will be getting tougher in the business sector in the next 12 months. There may not be that “R” word (did I say recession?) but there will be a slow-down. What’s the best way to for businesses in North Queensland to handle this looming situation? The ideal way to do this is to keep in mind an old real estate adage “Location, location, location.” No, I don’t mean that you should move your business premises but the secret is to strategically place yourself in the buyers’ minds of where your business is located. A business must work out what their main story is. Formally, this is what consultants call their “core service offering” or in simple language it’s what makes you different to your competitors.

This principle applies to any kind of business, big or small, a region or even a whole country. It’s always an interesting experience assisting clients who are in the business of offering their services and have an extensive list of past projects or activities that are varied. They feel they should be projected as experts in numerous fields that often do not have any relation to each other. It then becomes confusing for a buyer of their services to understand what they would use them for. An expert in everything is never perceived as an expert! Small retailers find it hard to compete against the big guys. The secret? They must locate themselves in the buyers’ mind as being THE place to get their product. One of the best examples I have seen is a shop that sold only buttons. If I wanted a special button, would I go to a supermarket that has a bit of everything? No, my mind takes me to the specialist who is my button expert. And I won’t mind paying a bit more either.

Sometimes, your sell story is not necessarily the obvious product that you are selling. Could you imagine Coke advertising themselves as a carbonated caffeine drink? No, of course not. What they are selling is zest for life and fun. By the way, it’s even good if you are thirsty. There are lots of cleaning businesses and often their service offering is similar. How do they get above the jumble to stand out? Their core service offering could be their reliability and consistency of their cleaning services or something else that makes them rise above the others.

As I mentioned before, one even needs to use thus principle to market a country. When I worked with Austrade overseas, our message about food products from Australia was that we are clean and green. A lot of countries sell food products but our core message was that we had the clean one!

 What’s the lesson for our region? Surely it’s the clean, green and sustainability marketing message. That service offering is a good one to promote for tourism our main industry and also a good platform to expand our business base for our local economy’s longer-term diversification. Let’s ensure we place ourselves in our buyers’ minds in that location!

Article written by Graham Poon and published by the Carins Post, 10 November 2008.

‘My View’ by Graham Poon – The Cairns Post

Experts in Tropical Expertise!

It’s become plainly obvious that we need to diversify the Cairns economy. No I don’t think we need oversize factories belching black smoke or to start digging for riches under Sheridan Street. Let’s market our brainpower! I’ve always been impressed by how innovative and smart Australians can be. We are a country of relatively small population and without the mega-dollars of countries like the US. With limited resources, we have always needed to think better and come up with our own cost-effective and innovative solutions.

I’ve had the absolute pleasure of working on a project funded through local member Desley Boyle’s department, DTRDI, to seek business opportunities for businesses and organisations that have specialised knowledge in the environment field deriving from their work in typical conditions found in the North Queensland region. For quite a while, this has been called “Tropical Expertise.” (What else??) It’s been amazing to work with so much capability that in some cases is recognised internationally as leading edge, world-class knowledge. And this capability is sitting right in the middle of our region! We need to engage internationally and promote the export of our Tropical Expertise.

Most people are probably not aware that there are players in our community who are already supplying their advice overseas in tropical forestry management, water treatment, warm water marine management, tropical health, and community engagement amongst others. This can be expanded to include tourism, tropical building services, agriculture and so the list goes on and on. North Queensland is one of the few developed areas economically in the tropical Asia-Pacific region. We have that special knowledge that arises from the fact that we live and work in a tropical environment and understand what is needed by our close-by international neighbours. We understand the challenges of heat, humidity, distance, adverse weather and the need for innovation. From experience, this “Tropical Expertise” is a capability sought by many countries. It’s a highly exportable commodity.

I’ve had many years assisting Australians export their services overseas and was delighted to do so. And in the current climate, it’s a good story to say this is an export that is non-polluting, is high quality, well-priced, promotes our region and helps international engagement with our neighbours. Of course, this helps to expand our commercial base. Much of the Tropical expertise story is the “clean, green and helping the world” message. This branding may also be helpful to our core industry: tourism. We should go for it!

Article written by Graham Poon and published by the Carins Post, 13 June 2008.