Mark Beyer

WHEN the nominations for the Business Elite survey started to roll in, we thought many people had already switched to holiday mode.

THE Port of Albany is looking forward to an investment boom next year with major exporters due to spend about $100 million.

WOODSIDE has pledged to maximise local content on its next big project, the $1.5 billion Enfield project, despite choosing to send a key component of the work overseas.

OCKERBY Real Estate, one of Western Australia's largest residential real estate firms, is switching its banking business from BankWest to Challenge Bank.

WA Business News subscribers have voted on the State's top business people. Mark Beyer reports.

Western Australia's exports of processed food have doubled in value over the past decade and are now worth more than $1 billion. Mark Beyer reports on a WA success story.

THE latest round of changes to State Government taxes could lead to a significant shift in the way businesses are bought and sold.

KAILIS & France Foods has gone to extraordinary lengths to build its food export business, recently investing $15 million to upgrade its Osborne Park factories to meet the exacting demands of its export customers.

THE vast majority of small and mid-sized companies in Australia expect to grow at a much faster rate than the economy as a whole next year, a new survey has found.

PLANS by listed tech company Natural Intelligence to reinvent itself as a telco have raised the hackles of investors concerned about less-than-fulsome disclosure.

OSBORNE Park-based finance broker Connaught Capital has become Centrepoint Finance after linking up with the national commercial finance group of the same name.

PB Foods, the parent of dairy manufacturer Peters & Brownes, has agreed to invest $7 million to expand production of super premium ice cream for the Japanese market.

IT'S something a breath of fresh air when all the talk around town is focused on the likelihood of a pre-election tax cut.

PERTH'S three existing law schools will face added competition in 2005, with Edith Cowan University and Curtin University planning to expand their legal studies programs.

THE looming concern about property prices, particularly investment-based apartments, is starting to focus attention on the perceived culprits – real estate investment spruikers.

THE Federal Government has warned there is just four months until the end of the transition to the Financial Services Reform Act.

SUBDUED trading in Multiplex Group shares this week left brokers pondering the prospects for the numerous other floats coming to market.

LEGISLATION to establish a new economic regulation authority passed State Parliament with only minor amendments last week despite generating heated debate earlier in the year.

WOODSIDE'S Train Four expansion project and Rio Tinto's HIsmelt project are the inaugural recipients of commendation certificates for their efforts to maximise local industry participation.

THE St John of God Foundation's Lighthouse project will open its second house in Western Australia this week.

MYAREE company Tasman Oil Tools changed its bank last year – a move that makes it an exception among small and medium sized companies.

THE first definitive study of freight movements in the metropolitan area has found that nearly one third of all container movements are empty.

FAR-REACHING changes to the structure of Perth's three major teaching hospitals are likely to be among the major reforms arising from the work of the State Government's health refor

PLANNED revisions to Australian Stock Exchange listing rules are likely to change capital raising activity and may also affect takeover tactics, a recent seminar in Perth has been told.

WESTERN Australian law firms will have the option of converting from a partnership to a company structure following passage of State Government legislation.

AUSTRALIAN of the Year Fiona Stanley has called for a greater focus on community health programs to prevent illness, particularly among young people.

AMA State president Brent Donovan has declared himself a supporter of reform but it seems he's no fan of the ideas floated by the State Government's health reform committee.

WA Business News' health forum elicited a wide range of views on whether healthcare should be considered a business.

RAMS Home Loans Group and Wizard Home Loans have added to the rapid growth in mortgage brokers, opening shopfront branches across suburban Perth.

IT'S an age-old saying that prevention is better than cure – yet it seems that one obvious place where this adage has not been applied is our struggling health system.

Health reform is one of the major financial and political issues facing the State Government. WA Business News brought together a group of key players last week to discuss the reform challenge. Mark Beyer reports.

THE Treasury department's role in the health reform process has been questioned by the medical lobby.