Advanced Manufacturing Plan for Australia

On Tuesday afternoon, 27th of March 2012, the Australian Institute of Export was keen to offer me an opportunity to attend a conference at the University of Technology, Sydney.  The conference was presented by Andrew N.  Liveris,  the President and the Chief Executive Officer of the Dow Chemical Company, who announced the official launch of the Dow Advanced Manufacturing Plan for Australia.

Mr Liveris, appointed Co-Chairman of Barack Obama’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership in the United States and the author of Make it America, introduced the new policy with the aim to induce domestic and foreign growth and investment in Australia’s manufacturing sector. During the conference he highlighted the importance of developing partnerships between universities and government in order to reach a more effective use of Australia’s resources and skills which stimulate high-value products. The CEO of the Dow accentuated that it was time to stop being dependant on minerals and energy, and start aiming for “a balanced, sustainable economy that adds value to resources”.
   
Although Australia managed to sidestep the 2008 global economic recession, keeping its level of unemployment fairly low, Liveris found that in the last few years employment growth across the economy has gradually slowed down and that the continuous exchange rate strength has become a serious issue for the manufacturing sector. The level of global competitiveness has fallen and as a result total productivity has decreased as well.  

“Over the past 50 years, Australia’s manufacturing sector has shrunk from nearly a third of the overall economy to just 8.6%. We have seen factories-and the jobs in them- shipped overseas as other countries become more competitive- and we become less”.  

Mr Liveris stressed that change will bring global competition, increased economic growth and job creation into Australia.

On the other hand, from his point of view the carbon tax and renewable energy targets would damage the county’s competitiveness. Instead, the DOW CEO recommended that the government should have put its main emphasis on low-cost savings, which could be achieved through improved energy efficiency.

According to the plan, half of all new natural gasfields will be reserved for domestic use, which therefore will provide businesses with reasonably priced gas and establish global competition.

Liveris announced that the 5 major targets of the new Manufacturing Plan will stand for: greater investments in innovation, the maximization of value add through energy feedstocks, better education and training, higher access to global markets, and the creation of public private partnerships.

In addition, the Advanced Manufacturing Plan for Australia will also bring the focus on mathematics and science in schools.

According to Liveris, so far Australia was lacking the recipe for using its ingredients effectively (the highly skilled workforce and large quantities of natural resources). He strongly believes that the new plan will be the right remedy for it.

Without a doubt, manufacturing plays an important role in a country’s overall economic performance. Approximately a quarter of Australian research and development is carried out by this sector.   With the help of the new Advanced Manufacturing Plan, a professional guide for policy makers is going to be delivered and it will encourage them to create new policies for developing high-value manufacturing.

Kristina Kovalenko,  Project Manager - Export Council of Australia

If you are interested in joining the Export Council of Australia manufacturing action group, please visit our website: www.export.org.au