Special Reports

It has been a year of record-breaking results in the resources sector as economic powerhouses China and India fuel demand and world prices for the majority of commodities continue their upward trajectory.

Strong wages growth has outpaced the rise in Perth’s Consumer Price Index, which rose by 4.2 per cent through the year to the March quarter 2006, much higher than the national increase of 3 per cent.

We all know that Australia is benefiting from another resources boom – the latest in a long history of export-orientated, resource-led growth spurts that we have experienced since the gold rush of the 1850s.

Western Australia recorded its second highest winter crop in 2005-06 at 14.4 million tonnes (mt), just trailing 2003-04 with 16.7mt.

The Western Australian economy has gone through an exceptional phase of economic growth and development over the past four years, and has gained further momentum so far in 2006.

Western Australia’s strong economy has produced an extraordinary fall in the state’s unemployment rate to less than 4 per cent, a level many economists thought would never be reached.

Western Australia’s burgeoning economy shows no sign of abating, with business investment spurring on record levels of growth for 2006.

All the stars continue to be aligned in favour of the Western Australian economy, on the back of a fourth successive year of above 30-year average real global economic growth.

Significant increases in net interstate and overseas migration have been the main contributors to the 1.9 per cent WA population increase in 2005-06.

Western Australia has all the ingredients the rest of the world wants and is willing to pay for. This has been the recipe for the success of the state, which is showing up its counterparts in every domestic economic indicator from house prices to state

Overwhelming interest in Western Australian property appears to have pushed the state’s median house price above $400,000 for the first time, and almost doubled the price of land in the year to June 2006.

Just a couple of years ago, the closing of a big manufacturing plant would have caused much political anguish.

The shortage of skilled labour is the biggest issue facing many Western Australian businesses. WA Business News reports on some of the innovative responses to the skills crisis.

Western Australian employers have responded to the skills shortage by making staff recruitment a continuous process.

Perth seems an unlikely place for the development of tools to manage a globally ubiquitous product such as Microsoft Outlook, but by some coincidence two local firms have based their time management solutions around this common software.

The internet may have revolutionised information access, but email has gone one step further in the way it has broken down traditional hierarchies, offering almost unfettered access to all.

Email has changed the way we communicate at work and in our personal lives, but the technology has also given rise to problems, particularly in the office. WA Business News looks at the issues to be overcome and how WA businesses are going about it.

While the iron ore and oil and gas sectors dominate the outlook for project investment, Western Australia is in line to host a diverse range of projects in other sectors worth more than $5 billion.

BHP Billiton’s Ravensthorpe nickel project is in line for the invidious honour of having the biggest cost blow-out of all the major projects in Western Australia in recent years.

The oil and gas and iron ore sectors are leading WA’s investment boom, WA Business News’ third annual survey of major projects has found.

Increased private sector involvement in infrastructure development is one option for the state government as it seeks to manage rising costs and rising demand for new infrastructure.

Sharp increases in project costs have done nothing to deter the growing number of companies aspiring to become iron ore miners in Western Australia.

Western Australia’s strong economic growth has spurred the development of new power generating capacity, with five power stations collectively worth $1.4 billion currently under construction in the South West.

The Gorgon LNG project has provided a $1 billion boost to the Western Australian economy, and it hasn’t even started yet.

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry stands to become the most significant part of the resources sector if projects proposed for waters off the coast of Western Australia come to fruition.

Premier Alan Carpenter and federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane don’t seem to agree on very much, but there is one issue on which they share a similar outlook.

If ever research and innovation were going to boost Western Australia’s economic prospects, now is the time.

Woodside chief executive Don Voelte has warned Australians not to take the resources boom for granted or assume the resources sector would easily cope with all of the challenges facing it.

The dumping of Telstra’s plans to build a $4 billion high-speed broadband network through Australia has raised questions about the future of broadband technology.

The ongoing debate over broadband access has prompted calls for an overhaul to the current copper cable network.

The booming resources sector has underpinned strong returns by listed Western Australian companies in WA Business News’ fifth annual survey of total shareholder returns.

Resource stocks are not the only ones to be profiting from the burgeoning environment in Western Australia, with companies in the mining services and property sectors also welcoming significant returns.