The NSW Government has appointed two further Senior Trade and Investment Commissioners (STICs) to help facilitate new export growth opportunities and open doors for NSW businesses across the ten Southeast Asian member states (ASEAN), India and the Middle East.
Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney and Minister for Trade and Industry Stuart Ayres said NSW is on track with establishing six global Investment NSW “hub” offices across key regions, as a critical part of the government’s response to COVID-19 and economic recovery.
“In October this year, we released the first ever NSW Trade Statement, which included our aim to appoint six global commissioners to help us open up new opportunities for NSW businesses worldwide,” Mr Ayres said.
“Today we can announce our third and fourth STICS, Mr Andrew Parker (ASEAN) and Mr Vishwesh Padmanabhan (India and Middle East) who will lead our engagement in these markets, taking up their posts in early 2022.”
The appointments add to the earlier announcements of Stephen Cartwright OAM as UK Agent General and Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner for Europe and Israel, and Michael Newman as a Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner to North Asia.
Mr Parker is a long-term partner at PwC who, for the past seven years, has been Asia Practice Leader for PwC Australia. He holds positions on a range of Boards and Committees, including Non-Executive Director of China Matters and Monash University’s Australia-Indonesia Centre, is a member of the Advisory Board of the Asia Society of Australia and Co-Chairman of DFAT’s Business Advisory Group for its Blueprint for Deepening Australia’s Trade and Investment with Indonesia.
“The ASEAN trade bloc represents NSW’s third largest two-way trading partner after China and the USA, and the fourth largest investor into Australia. The $3 trillion economies of ASEAN provide multiple opportunities for NSW exporters, from premium food and beverage makers through to medtech, fintech and cyber businesses, to access a growing population base,” Mr Parker said.
“Supporting the return of international students from the region will be high on my list of priorities, and I’m also excited to use my position and base in Singapore to work with regional headquarters of multinationals to attract investment and stimulate jobs growth in NSW.”
Mr Padmanabhan has worked in senior roles throughout Asia for the past two decades, including Malaysia and Singapore for IBM, South East Asia for PwC and most recently based in India as KPMG India’s Markets Global Leader Partner, working with telco clients in India, Australia, Vietnam and the Middle East.
“NSW has a strong relationship with India, one built on trade, business, culture and significant people-to-people links. With the world’s largest democracy and a young population, India is one of NSW’s most promising sources of growth and continues to generate immense opportunities for NSW business,” Mr Padmanabhan said.
“I’m looking forward to drawing on my experience and relationships to create strong trade pathways that attract investment and boost exports to support jobs and growth at home.”
Mr Ayres said Investment NSW’s international offices will actively promote the state as a destination for international investment and as a source of world-class products and services.
“The NSW Government is committed to helping NSW businesses diversify and recover from the disruptions this pandemic has caused and to ensure our global trading system remains strong despite COVID-19.”
“We are setting ambitious targets, but we are also supporting those targets with the resources to make them a reality. I am thrilled with the appointments of Mr Parker and Mr Padmanabhan and look forward to working with them in the new year.”
Recruitment for the final two Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner positions for the Americas and Greater China is underway and will be finalised in the coming months.
The NSW Trade Statement outlines strategies to expand NSW exports including:
- increasing the number of exporting businesses from NSW, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
- exporting a more diverse range of goods, services and technologies, reflecting the true breadth and depth of NSW’s world leading capabilities
- not only growing exports in established markets, but also increasing the number of overseas markets that we export to
- building new pathways like ecommerce for how we export to reach a global customer base of billions of consumers.
Download the NSW Trade Statement at https://www.investment.nsw.gov.au/.
