Global trade and investment rely on cross-border movement of goods and people for work purposes. Especially the cross-border exchanges of people for trade and investment is currently heavily restricted in Australia. In turn, the restrictions hurt the German-Australian business community.
This week, we spoke with Simone Whetton from Colin Biggers & Paisley. Simone has been a member of the board since 2015, and chairs our Policy Advisory Committee.
Join us as we talk about the value of the office, mental health, civic duty, and German dialects!
On 16 July, the Australian Government has announced a major new program to improve skills by retraining and upskilling workers. The value of the program is up to $2.5 billion if the States and Territories match the Commonwealth government funding.
Between 1 July 2020 and 31 December 2020, Germany has assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). With the COVID-19 situation and its associated economic impact, this is a critical time for Germany to have this rotating role for these six months. Also, this period covers central EU discussions and debates of the next European Financial Framework for the years 2021-2027, including the so-called Green Deal climate policy.
Recently, the Australian Government presented a discussion paper “Australia’s Technology Investment Roadmap”.
AHK Australia prepared and submitted a document to this process and is looking forward to working with the Department, the Chief Scientist and other stakeholders to improve Australia’s energy system through technology investment.
Manufacturing, and advanced manufacturing in particular, has been the topic of many discussions recently both on an industry and political level. COVID-19 has highlighted not only certain vulnerabilities in this area, but has shown great desire by many Australian companies to increase local production, while maintaining healthy trade relationships with overseas partners.
