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Government aims to strengthen supply chain

Industrial rents

The Department of Industry and Science says Australia has joined other nations to strengthen cooperation on global supply chains with Ed Husic, its MP attending a virtual forum.

It notes Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State and Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Commerce hosted the event where they discussed collective long-term strategies to build supply chain resilience.

“Collaboration with international partners is vital to building more resilient, transparent, and diverse global supply chains,” Ed says.

“That’s why Australia needs to work with like-minded countries to ensure access to essential goods and services are supported, particularly when there is disruption,” he adds.

The Global Supply Chain Resilience Forum is the largest multilateral forum focused on supply chain resilience and complements Australia’s other international engagements on supply chains such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and the Quadrilateral Security Forum.

The department says Ed underpinned the importance of having both a national and international approach in addressing stresses in global supply chain, and the role of governments to step in and support businesses and workers where the supply of essential goods and services is at risk of significant disruption.

“The voices of businesses, workers and community groups are central to these discussions as they are the first line of defence for maintaining well-functioning supply chains,” Ed says.

“Our government is committed to respond to important views raised by stakeholders at the Forum including the need to ensure there is adequate workforce in times of crisis, the critical role of public procurement in strengthening and diversifying supply chains, and the need for substantial public-private partnerships to build critical supply chain resilience,” he adds.

He says resilient global supply chains reinforced the prosperity, security, and wellbeing of the nation.

The department says in September, the Australian government will host a Jobs and Skills Summit, brining unions, businesses, civil society, and local governments together to build a bigger and more productive workforce and address skills shortages.

It adds that the government’s $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund will drive co-investments in projects that address vulnerabilities in critical supply chain while the Buy Plan Australia will ensure that we can make use of government procurement as a major economic level to strategically address supply chain risk.

“With Australia’s ongoing investments in building our supply chain monitoring capability, we are in a great position to work with interested governments, to provide advice and support collaborative actions to strengthen key global supply chains in a way that will benefit us all,” Ed says.

Ministers from the UK, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, India, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, EU, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and the Democratic Republic of Congo attended the Global Supply Chain Resilience Forum.

For more information on the Department of Industry and Science, click here.

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