Building Bigger Better South Australia: Mitsubishi Motors Australia chief Shaun Westcott believes SA can leapfrog into a lucrative hi-tech future

South Australia can become a Silicon Valley of Australia” by unleashing a pipeline of highly skilled graduates, says Mitsubishi’s Australian boss.

South Australia can leapfrog into a hi-tech future and become “a Silicon Valley of Australia” by unleashing a pipeline of highly skilled graduates to tap into lucrative opportunities ahead, says Mitsubishi Motors Australia chief Shaun Westcott.

Warning SA risked “a perfect storm” if mining, defence, automotive and other industries competed for graduates, Mr Westcott said sought-after skills across these sectors were converging.

The growing software density and complexity of cars, for example, would mean more trades, computer programming and electrical skills were needed to program and maintain vehicles to keep them on the road.

Mitsubishi Motors Australia president and chief executive officer Shaun Westcott with bidirectional car charger – that enables a car battery to power homes and also can charge cars. Picture: RoyVphotography

Mr Westcott, an executive whose global experience includes robotics, mining, forestry and Coca-Cola Sabco South Africa, said these skills also would be in high demand for BHP’s proposed copper expansion and nuclear-powered submarine construction.

“This is going to create a very significant, I’m concerned, shortage of skills, because typically at the core of all of these industries is a body of tradespeople,” he said.

“People that make and maintain all of these systems and processes, that eventually run these factories, that eventually run these enterprises. My concern is we’re all going to be competing for the same skills.”

Mr Westcott said both vocational and university graduates would be in high demand, creating an opportunity for industries to capitalise on the planned merger of the universities of Adelaide and South Australia

“We should as a state, be looking at a very, very solid and a very significant pipeline of skill and talent development,” he said.

SA’s ability to make a significant impact on the world stage hinged on developing and attracting high-order university-level skills, in parallel with tapping into mineral riches and developing entirely new industries like artificial intelligence and bio-engineering.

AI was the new frontier that could boost productivity by supplementing and complementing existing jobs, making them faster, quicker and easier, while easing skills shortages in “deep, dark and dirty” jobs employers now struggled to fill.

Mitsubishi Motors Australia president and chief executive officer Shaun Westcott at the firm’s Adelaide Airport corporate headquarters. Picture: RoyVphotography

Mr Westcott pointed out the United States technology revolution, centred on Silicon Valley, meant that region generated almost twice the gross domestic product per capita than Detroit, the automotive manufacturing heartland.

Traditional manufacturing, including automotive, would not return to Australia because of labour costs, market size, distance from global supply chains and extensive existing market choices.

Mr Westcott said SA should leapfrog into the fourth industrial revolution – following steam, electricity and mass production – to capitalise on technology and boost productivity.

“We need to compete in the connected space: in the internet of things, in robotics, in AI. We need to develop technology that we can export. It doesn’t need to be shipped to move it around the world. It’s not a traditional supply chain, big carbon footprint, large volume, big ships, expense. We should compete in the intellectual space,” Mr Westcott said.

“ … What we should be looking to develop is an industry that can do research and development – develop products that we can export that are more around intellectual capital. That is exactly what Silicon Valley does.

“That is where we can use our universities, our academics, our professors to create hi-tech, leading edge, cutting-edge (products).”