Season's Greetings to All Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends

This will be my last posting until mid January. I will be in the USA visiting clients, colleagues and friends - assisting them in their final arrangements prior to the USA / Australia Free Trade Agreement coming into effect on 1 January. I look forward to sharing a cold, northern hemisphere holiday season with them - rather than the usual Australian holiday on the beach

I can be contacted by email.

To all of Agar Carlyon's many friends and colleagues - we wish you all a very safe and enjoyable holiday season and a prosperous New Year.

David
editor@agarcarlyon.com

Australia / USA Free Trade Agreement

Australian businesses will gain expanded access to the $200 billion United States government procurement market when the Australia / United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) comes into force on 1 January 2005.

Australia’s trade facilitation service – Austrade - with partners from industry and federal and state governments, has been conducting a series of seminars to assist Australian businesses identify and secure opportunities in the vast US government market.

Austrade estimates the US federal budget for technology procurement alone reached nearly US$60 billion in 2004 with more than half this amount being spent on homeland security.

Just as Australian exporters need to understand the challenges involved in doing business with US government agencies, including complex channels to market, strong competition and long sales cycles, so too will US companies need guidance in accessing the numerous opportunities now open to them in Australia.

The Australian government, through Austrade is assisting Australian ICT and defence suppliers with advice on contacts, US regulatory procedures, registering as a government supplier, and the best ways of presenting their products to US government buyers.

Agar Carlyon is set up with an office in Sydney and colleagues in the US to assist companies in accessing the Australian market.

As is well known, Australian companies have a good track record of developing innovative technology solutions and security products which have an excellent chance of interesting US government buyers. Agar Carlyon suggests that US companies look at the joint venture opportunities that could now be available.

For further information on the Free Trade Agreement or any other aspect of accessing the Australian market, please email me.

David
editor@agarcarlyon.com

Mining sector opportunity

Readers should be interested in a proposed $1.85 billion iron ore project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia that could generate annual export revenue of about $1.6 billion. The project - known as the Pilbara Iron Ore and Infrastructure Project is owned by Fortescue Metals Group limited(FMG).

The project involves the development of mining and on-site processing plant assets together with a heavy haul railway to link the mining operations with a new port facility at Port Hedland.

This project should provide numerous opportunities for companies with a wide range of expertise to work with FMG.

The company is targeting annual iron ore production of 45 million tonnes per annum for an initial 20 years and is confident its project will be producing iron ore by the end of 2006. The dollar value of annual exports will be around $1.6 billion based on current iron ore prices.

Please email me if you require further information on this issue or any other business opportunities in Australia.

David
editor@agarcarlyon.com

Australian Navy Survey System Upgrade

Brisbane based Seismic Asia Pacific Pty Limited has been chosen by Australian Defence as the preferred tenderer to upgrade the Royal Australian Navy's hydrographic survey system. The upgrade will be carried out on the Navy's PALUMA Class Survey Motor Launches as part of a program called Project SEA 1401 Phase 3. The upgrade will increase the Navy's survey capability and reduce the time to complete surveys of Australia's coastal waters. The upgrade will improve the shallow water surveying capability of the Navy and is included in the Defence Capability Plan.

The project will also provide portable hydrographic survey systems to be used on small craft, which will be particularly useful in reef-strewn areas. The portable systems will also provide an easily transportable system for emergencies. Three of the portable systems will be the more advanced tactical survey systems that will be deployed to the Australian Hydrographic Office Detached Survey Unit in Wollongong, to the HMAS Cairns base in north Queensland and to the Hydrographic School at HMAS Penguin in Sydney. The first system is planned to be installed by the end of 2005 with the remaining systems to be installed and tested during 2006.

Seismic Asia Pacific provides equipment, consumables, systems integration, engineering hardware and software maintenance support services to defence industries throughout the Australasian region as well as geophysical, hydrographic and oceanographic environment industries.

For further information about this item or other business opportunities in Australia, please email me.

David

editor@agarcarlyon.com

Yellow Tail producer crowned Australia’s top exporter

Casella Wines – the producer of the Yellow Tail wine brand - has just been announced as the 2004 Australian Exporter of the Year.

Australia’s Trade Minister has congratulated Casella Wines on its outstanding achievements in exporting its Yellow Tail brand to the US, and stressed the important role the wine producer now plays in encouraging other Australian businesses to export.

Casella Wines is situated in the south western region of the State of New South Wales. The company has been exporting wine for the past eight years. It has only been in the last five that sales have escalated, spearheaded by the success of the popular Yellow Tail brand. Yellow Tail has proven to be the most successful launch of any Australian wine brand in the history of the Australian wine industry. It is now regarded as a phenomenon, selling more than 500,000 cases in the US in its first year of release. In 2003, sales rose to five million cases, and in 2004, sales are expected to exceed 10 million cases.

Contact me for more information about this or other business opportunities in Australia.

David
editor@agarcarlyon.com

Australian Dollar v the Greenback

The $A has dropped slightly from its recent 9 month high in comparison with the $US, but the expectation is that as the US economy shows further signs of weakness, the $A will again strengthen.

To view charts of the $A v $US visit FutureSource ( http://www.futuresource.com/index.jsp)

Australian Interest Rates Remain Unchanged

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has today announced that monetary policy will again remain “as is’ – leaving the official interest rate unchanged at 5.25%.

This means that interest rates have remained stable for a full 12 months, with the last change being increases of just 0.25% in both November and December 2003.

Even though the RBA gave no reason for its decision, it is most likely that declining exports, the softening in the domestic housing market and the rising value of the $A all contributed to the outcome.

The decision came as no surprise and was widely anticipated.

For more information on this or any other topic, please email me.

David
editor@agarcarlyon.com

Australian Innovation

Sydney-based company Card Access has been awarded a substantial grant from the Australian Government to develop the CASPAY terminal – an automated means of processing credit card transactions at a fraction of the cost of existing systems. The hand-held secured bank device, CASPAD, will be used to secure the bank purchase or payment values with encryption to create an EFTPOS security to the home PC, mobile or television set-top box.

Other projects to receive innovation funding include:

· Argus Technologies, to develop a multi-band base-station antenna for all mobile phone systems to outperform current single-band systems;

· Bos Web Management, for a property valuation and business management system development project;

· Bugaj Suspension Technologies, to commercialise its high-performance shock absorbers;

· Access Dinghy Sailing Systems for a revolutionary sail boat which will enable more disabled sportspeople to compete in the sport;

· Pulmosonix, to develop a novel acoustic device for the early detection of emphysema;

· Sleep Diagnostics, for its Optalert monitor to alert truck drivers when they reach dangerous levels of drowsiness; and

· Inference Communications, to commercialise its project which offers speech recognition software for call centres.

For more information on these exciting projects, or on other opportunities that exist in Australia please contact me.

David

editor@agarcarlyon.com

December's newsletter now being circulated

The Australian economy is moving towards the end of 2004 in a strong position but with a number of mixed messages. This month's "Economic Overview" on page 1 of "The Agar Carlyon Report" (click here) summarizes a number of recent economic statistics. The overall picture is still of a very strong economy, growing at a rate expected to be between 3% and 4% next year, with inflation in check and with unemployment to drop possibly as low as 4%.

The A$ has strengthened over the past month against the US$ making it harder for Australian exporters and further weakening balance of trade figures as imports continue to remain attractive. Many opportunities exist for US companies in Australia.

And with the most important news being the signing of the USA / Australia Free Trade Agreement and its implementation date of January 1, 2005 , the outlook could not be better for US businesses seeking to trade, partner or joint venture with Australian companies.

For further immediate information you can contact us by either return email or by accessing our web site at http://www.agarcarlyon.com

The US Department of Commerce’s US Commercial Service lists on its web site in Australia just 29 companies as Business Service Providers. Agar Carlyon is proud to be included as one of those companies. Click here to find our listing on the US Commercial Service web site.

David Taylor editor@agarcarlyon.com