Ministers meet to strengthen global supply chain resilience

Australian and United States ministers have met in a virtual forum to discuss strengthening global supply chains.

Industry and science minister Ed Husic joined a virtual ministerial forum hosted by the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, to discuss long-term strategies to build supply chain resilience.

During the meeting Husic raised the role of governments to step in and support businesses and workers where the supply of essential goods and services is at risk of significant disruption.

Husic said: “Australia needs to work with like-minded countries to ensure access to essential goods and services are supported particularly when there is disruption.”

“The voices of businesses, workers and community groups are central to these discussions as they are the first line of defence for maintaining well-functioning supply chains.”

The Global Supply Chain Resilience Forum is the largest multilateral forum focused on supply chain resilience and brought together ministers from the UK, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, India, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, EU, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

While no major decisions were announced following the meeting, the discussions will feed into September’s Jobs and Skills Summit, which will address skills shortages.

“Our Government is committed to respond to important views raised by stakeholders at the Forum including the need to ensure there is adequate workforce in times of crisis, the critical role of public procurement in strengthening and diversifying supply chains, and the need for substantial public-private partnerships to build critical supply chain resilience.”

Husic said the Government’s $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund would drive co-investments in projects that address vulnerabilities in critical supply chain while the Buy Plan Australia would ensure that government procurement was a major economic lever to strategically address supply chain risk.

Picture: Ed Husic

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