Gekko chairman and managing director Elizabeth Lewis-Gray will chair the new Mining Equipment Technology and Services Growth Centre. 

She said the sector, which provides highly specialised equipment to the resources industry, had been underestimated in the past. 

“It’s only been recently that government and the industry has really understood how big the sector is,” she said. 

“It’s a $90 billion industry  that hasn’t developed a sectoral strategy yet.” 

There are some guidelines – such as training and improving the business environment for companies such as Gekko – that Ms Lewis-Gray will follow when developing the centre, which she said would work towards improving the mining sector as a whole. 

“There’s two ... platforms with which (the sector) can assist the Australian economy overall. One is by improving productivity in mining overall, and we can do that with better research, applied research outcomes, and we can do that with better supplier and mining company relationships,” she said. 

“The other is to speed up the innovation cycle. From the time we have an innovation to the time it gets applied and utilised in many heavy equipment areas takes 20 years.” 

Ms Lewis-Gray said the Australian resource industry’s current downturn was not all negative, as companies tended to look more at innovation when times were tough. 

“The industry is a cyclical industry. The reality is that every time it slows down, how you manage that slowdown will provide a platform for how effective you are when it turns around again. 

“Often, the downturn is when the strategy really gets going.” 

She said it was a good sign the government had decided on one growth centre for the METS sector, alongside advanced manufacting, oil, gas and energy resources as well as food and agribusiness.

alex.hamer@fairfaxmedia.com.au