Staff Reporters

ARGUABLY the world’s largest person-to-person online tradingcommunity, eBay, has released a new Australian web site, www.ebay.com.au

PRO:NED has added a new senior executive search service to its non-executive and executive director search and recruitment services.

PLEXUS International has announced an alliance agreement with StateWest Credit Society.

THE decision by Melbourne-based Plenty River Corporation to select the Burrup Peninsula as the preferred site for its proposed $800 million ammonia and urea plant will be a fillip for Western Australian business.

GRANT Chettleburg didn’t know what sort of job he wanted after leaving school but soon made a name for himself in the horticulture industry.

CABLE & Wireless Optus and Telstra have been recently chosen by the WA Government to supply data communications services to government agencies in remote areas of the State.

ERIC Streitberg is relentlessly pursuing his pipedream of expanding considerably oil and gas output in the Dongara production licence area near the coastal town of Dongara.

PROPERTY Council of Australia past President Gerald Major has been appointed by the Minister for Planning Graham Kierath to the important position of industry representative on the Central Perth Planning Committee.

WA company HotelNet has launched the first installation of its interactive Internet and entertainment system for hotels.

PERTH-based Talon Resources NL has been transformed from explorer to an industrial minerals producer withconsiderable growth prospects.

THERE is more to big and tall sizes than just increasing thenumbers of X’s on a shirt or centimetres on the waist, says Kingsize Menswear director Cameron Blair.

BARNES and Noble are planning on upstaging Amazon.com by offering print-on-demand books.

EMPLOYING more young people is a way businesses can boost their chances of winning State Government contracts.

Earlier this week I delivered a keynote address to a Queensland conference which focused on online communities.

LOCAL swimwear designer Annette Stivaletta is receiving international interest for her collection Stivaletta_all wet.

THE Australian Securities and Investments Commission hasreleased an issues paper seeking comments on multi-media prospectuses and other offer documents.

WA engineering company RCR Tomlinson has acquired a 60 per cent share in a new company, Premium Workforce, to supplyshutdown maintenance and labour hire services throughout the state.

PERTH-based e-tailing company Avanta.com.au has secured a deal in the US that will provide the it withprominent market exposure.

APPLECROSS-based software designer Metech has cracked the corporate business sector in Africa for the first time.

A PROPERTY Council of Australia report has found that good urban design can boost economic returns for property investors as well as improve the quality of the built environment.

ONLINE share market investors’ forum HOTcopper’s initial public offering has been heavily oversubscribed.

Junior oil and gas explorer West Oil NL has had a fillip to its strategy to exploit its extensive hydrocarbon ground in the Timor Sea.

EDITH Cowan University has completed its Service 2000project, the largest switched local area network replacement to be conducted in WA.

Picking up a strong sniff of gold by the Glengarry Resources NL might advance prospects for the Larranganni project in the Tanami/ Granites area of WA.

CHEFS are in big demand on the eve of one of the biggest summer seasons the hospitality industry has ever faced.

OSBORNE Park-based magnet wholesaler Aust-mag has become the first WA company to be named Australia’s best micro-business.

THE first Australian online business directory has been established with more than one million listings.

Lynas Gold NL’s gold ambitions in the Ashburton Mineral Field have been given a shot in the arm.

THE first ever ranking of Australia’s most popular web sites has been compiled by Internet research company IMR Worldwide.

THE possibility of Virgin Airlines entering the domestic passenger market is good news for Western Australians.

AROUND $7 million is available to businesses in the textile, clothing and footware industry through strategic investment programs, says TCF Resource Centre of WA manager Carol Hanlon.

Contractors to Woodside Petroleum, and that includes about every second business in WA, may be in for a rough time as the big oil and gas producer launches headlong into its cost cutting crusade.