A SPECIAL grant to improve growth and competitiveness in Ballarat’s manufacturing sector was announced yesterday.
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The Victorian government announced they would give $42,000 to the recently formed Ballarat Innovation Industry Group.
The group aims to share their experiences and insights into innovation, technology and manufacturing.
Minister for Manufacturing David Hodgett said the City of Ballarat would match the grant and the Australian Industry Group would also contribute funds to the group.
“It is all about helping manufacturing and businesses, targeting projects to those businesses to help them become more competitive,” he said.
Mr Hodgett said Ballarat would look at the motor vehicle manufacturing sector and ways to diversify these businesses.
“We recognise the challenges and we have got to support those businesses that have those challenges,” he said.
Innovation was one of the keys to the manufacturing sector, which Mr Hodgett described as an industry in transition.
“There are plenty of good news stories in manufacturing but we tend not to talk them up, we tend to focus on the bad news stories,”he said.
“But we also need to celebrate our successes because there are plenty of good news stories and plenty up here in regional Victoria.”