Bryce Eishold
Latrobe Valley manufacturers will have access to a new program to help bolster productivity and competitiveness in an industry which is booming, Industry and Employment Minister Ben Carroll says.
Mr Carroll visited the Latrobe Valley yesterday to announce the Latrobe Valley Manufacturing Cluster which will help manufacturing businesses such as Safetech in Moe adopt new skills and strength trade and supply chain opportunities.
The cluster will be overseen by a committee of local stakeholders and run in partnership with the Australian Industry Group – part of the state government’s $5 million state-wide initiative to help regional manufacturers expand.
Mr Carroll said there were more than 165 manufacturing businesses in the Latrobe Valley which would benefit from the cluster and help them embrace innovation and contacts with other industry organisations.
“Victoria will always be a manufacturing state,” Mr Carroll told media yesterday.
“We want to see manufacturing continue to grow in this state. Many people think manufacturing is dead or dying [but] nothing could be more further from the truth.
“Manufacturing is growing in regional Victoria, in fact it’s grown for 17 consecutive months – the biggest growth in manufacturing since 2001.”
Mr Carroll said the manufacturing industry was growing due to companies like Safetech who were producing a product in demand.
Established in Moe in 1984, Safetech designs and manufactures commercials lifts, hoists and cranes for a range of industries.
“Clusters are an important component for bringing small, medium-sized enterprises together because that collaboration means they work well together,” Mr Carroll said.
Safetech director David Wakefield said the cluster would help further develop skills and industry understanding.
“The skills of the people here [in the Latrobe Valley] are second to none in the world and they should not be embarrassed to take them to the world,” Mr Wakefield said.
“We see it as a chance to work with other like-minded individuals and industries in the area and keep moving things along at that sophisticated level.
“The reality is you’ve got to be creative and innovative – you’ve got to develop your market. You can’t do it in the old traditional sense; open the shed, bash the metal and hope to survive. It just won’t happen.”
