Launch of 2014 ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards

Yesterday Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr launched the 2014 ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards.

The awards highlight the importance and growth of the ACT’s exporting community and acknowledge the innovation, hard work and success of our local businesses, large and small, in reaching new markets. They highlight those companies who are contributing to the more than $1.3 billion worth of products and services being exported annually from the ACT.

The ACT continues to develop global businesses with ACT Exporter of the Year winner, Aspen Medical, going on to win its second Australian Export Award in 2013.

Other winners of the ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards are also experiencing significant success in their international markets including Datapod who took the opportunity at yesterday’s launch to announce they had signed a $2 million contract to export a data centre system to a US government department.

Speaking to the Canberra Times Datapod's managing director, Scott Carr said cracking the US market was the last milestone for the company's entry into worldwide exports after beginning with the Asia-Pacific market and later Europe.

''[The US] is a much more competitive and mature market,'' he said.

''But we have demonstrated we can be competitive against big companies. Datapod was born global, we set up the company for a worldwide market from day one.''

Mr Carr also said that he was not surprised the ACT's export market was growing.

''We know there are a lot of very talented, highly skilled engineers and technicians in Canberra."

"We've got a strong technological base and a great skills base we can draw on" continued Mr Carr. Read more in the Canberra Times article, Capital's export growth leads the nation .

Winning an ACT Chief Minister’s Export Award has helped Datapod with this success. After winning the Small to Medium Manufacturing category in 2012 Datapod's director, Adam Smith said “The ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards provides companies with industry recognition and commercial acknowledgment” said Mr Smith.

“By receiving a substantial, peer-reviewed award, Datapod can further demonstrate to potential buyers that it has received industry confidence and backing.” Read more in our blog post, Local business making worldwide impact on the technology industry.

For more information on the ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards visit www.australianexportawards.com.au