Gary Kleyn

ASIA, one of WA’s biggest Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions markets, is coming back online with a vengeance.Some industry insiders predict a boom period in the Asian convention market in the next five years and Perth is ideally posit...

WA WILL establish the world’s first comprehensive online procurement service, Works and Services Minister Rob Johnson announced this week.An agreement between Government tender agency Contract and Management Services and Sun Microsystems is expecte...

TWO new towns could be developed north of Ellenbrook as part of a WA Planning Commission strategy mapping out the future of the area for the next 30 years.Planning Minister Graham Kierath said the North-East Corridor Extension Strategy would guid...

THE Goldfields is making a big push to attract Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibition business.Goldfields MICE program coordinator Christine Boase said her initial role was to educate operators on the value of MICE business and to encour...

A WA Police Service plan to close James and Lake streets from December to February has been refused by the Perth City Council.Under the plan James Street would be closed between William and Parker streets and Lake Street would be closed between Roe ...

MOST Wattleup homeowners want to sell their homes to the WA Government as part of the implementation of the Fremantle Rockingham Industrial Area Regional Strategy, according to a Government survey.Planning Minister Graham Kierath said the results we...

WA REGIONS have been given a hand to enter the Meetings, Incentive, Conventions and Exhibitions market.Perth Convention Bureau former director of first impressions Luana Haylan has been appointed regional manager WA.She will spearhead the bureau’s...

TRADING house Marubeni has bought Wesfarmers woodchip and plantation interests for $58 million.The sale agreement covers WA Chip & Pulp, Sotico Treefarms, South West Forest Holdings and Wesfarmers’ interest in Bunnings Tree Plantations.Wesfarmers ...

WHILE the Court Government should win the next election by a narrower margin than the last State poll, industry needed to get friendly with “the others” just in case.This was the message Barmac Consulting principal and former State opposition leader...

CONSUMER inflationary expectations for August fell to 4.5 per cent from 4.6 per cent in July, as the inflationary impact of the GST was downgraded.This brings inflationary expectations back to April, 1999 levels.The Westpac consumer expectations s...

Ltd has posted its fifth consecutive year of profits with a pre-tax and abnormals result of $4.41 million on sales of $30 million.Down on last year’s record results, the company is still happy with the results in light of the significant price hikes...

A MARGARET River company could be the next Billabong if predictions by its managing director Hamish Younger eventuate.The company, which supplies surfware including clothing, roof racks, tie downs and surfboard bags, hopes to spread its wings around...

A WA Government tax loophole that enabled big business dodge millions of dollars in stamp duty on property deals has been closed.Minister Assisting the Treasurer Graham Kierath said Cabinet had approved a number of amendments to the Stamp Act to cou...

COCKBURN City Council will be required to pay the full cost of the inquiry that led to its dismissal.Local Government minister Paul Omodei announced his decision today and said he had told the commissioners that the money would have to be paid to th...

LIFESTYLE, good business opportunities and cheap office rents were some of the attractions of Fremantle, according to Verios Shipman Consulting partner Lee Verios.“The real essence of Fremantle is that it is a real potpourri of cultures and standard...

A MAJOR revamp of Australia’s tax system, Option 2, aims to dispose of 70 years of tax law and replace it with a new system.Taxable income is calculated by subtracting allowable deductions from income.Under Option 2, that formula will be replaced ...

FREMANTLE business and its community needed to work together and put a stop to mud slinging, Fremantle Chamber of Commerce executive John Longley said.“There is a culture of negativity and I would like to see that changed,” Mr Longley said.He said...

NEW Perth company buildingworld.com.au plans to target the $40 billion Australian building industry sector with the launch of an Internet site.buildingworld.com.au offers Internet services for business to business, business to consumer and will act ...

YET another winery and vineyard is planned for the Margaret River – the third fully integrated project in two years.Headed by ex-Bond Corp executive Cedric Williamson, the Settlement 22 project plans to raise $37 million for a 113 hectare vineyard c...

HOUSING finance tumbled 14.5 per cent in June to be down 13 per cent in annual terms, according to the latest Australian Bureau Statistics data.The June quarterly result was also very weak, with the total number of new loans falling 8.5 per cent, an...

THE Imax cinema proposed for the Perth City Council’s redeveloped Lake Street car park is back on track.The cinema was to be operated by Sydney-based cinema operator Cinema Plus but that company went into administration.It had taken a 20-year leas...

THE sales of Perth inner city apartment have dropped sharply as a result of the GST.The situation is so bad developers and agents are finding it difficult to make a sale.Some have resorted to cash back offers and offering prizes such as new car...

PERTH City Council has approved an application by the Perth Convention Bureau for $181,500, but has called on the Bureau to make more advances to other parties for funding.The grant was based on a 10 per cent increase on the previous year’s grant....

NOTRE Dame University in Fremantle has become the first university to outsource its online education services.The university has signed a heads of agreement with Working Systems Solutions Limited’s wholly owned subsidiary company Uni-U Internationa...

PERTH company Kailis & France Foods hopes its new $15 million factory at Osborne Park will help it become the largest Australian exporter of frozen convenience foods to the south and north Asian regions by 2004.The 4,000 square metre factory will p...

A NUMBER of advertised homes have dropped their prices by up to 10 per cent in the last two weeks just to find a buyer, Hegney Property Valuations managing director Gavin Hegney said.He said the real estate market was in a lull.“We have an abnorma...

HOUSING approvals figures released for the period to June have indicated a deep slump that was a lot worse than had been forecast.

THE perceived threat of the Internet to shopping centres often mooted by industry players is not warranted, Woolworths CEO and managing director Roger Corbett told a recent Securities Institute luncheon.“There’s lots of talk about there being clicks...

ONLINE recruitment poses both an enormous threat and wonderful opportunity for recruitment agencies, according to one of Perth’s biggest industry players.Bell Personnel director David Anderson said the traditional ‘offline’ recruitment industry woul...

AN ADVERTISEMENT for a “bunch of camels with their equipment and a trailer” was enough to start 18 year old Romy Campbell-Hicks in business.Dunsborough-based Ms Camp-bell-Hicks had just returned from an overseas holiday and started a degree in trave...

THE WA Government’s urban renewal program, New Living, has won the United Nations World Habitat Award.The $320 million program defeated five international finalists.Housing Minister Kim Hames said New Living enabled more than 2,000 individuals or ...

WA would have been in recession during the past year if State Government had not intervened, Chamber of Commerce and Industry economist Nick Cusworth said at the Australian Property Institute’s annual State conference.