Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull visits Bambi Enterprises
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has linked the success of a West Gosford quilt company to the Federal government’s China-Australia Free Trade Agreement during a visit to the Central Coast yesterday.
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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has linked the success of a West Gosford quilt company to the Federal government’s China-Australia Free Trade Agreement during a visit to the Central Coast yesterday.
Mr Turnbull made the comment during a visit to Bambi Enterprises which is on the brink of a major expansion after signing an agreement to supply luxury alpaca quilts to Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com.
The agreement is likely to drive a doubling in the size of the West Gosford factory and create at least 20 new jobs.
The free trade agreement with China was signed in 2015 and means 95 per cent of Australias exports to China are tariff free with more liberal access to the Chinese market for local business.
Bambi General Manager Peter Witney told the PM that 15 per cent of its annual production was now going to China — an increase of 50% in one year.
The PM praised the success of the company and said it was an example of how investment leads to jobs.
“In the last year we have seen 355K jobs created in Australia — nearly 1000 a day — 84 per cent of them full time,” Mr Turnbull said.
“The unemployment rate is the lowest since January 2014 — and that is because of families like the Witneys are investing, taking a risk, investing some more, employing some more and using their enterprise to go out into the world and find new export markets,” he said.
“And of course trade means jobs — you hear a lot of people talking about protectionism but believe me protectionism is a dead end,” he said.
“You have to open up those big markets and get access to them and you are producing some of the best product in the world.”
Bambi Enterprises was founded by Peter and Jan Witney 35 years ago and started off making wool baby-seat covers in their garage at Tascott.
JD.com is a Chinese online retailer based in Beijing. It is one of the two largest such companies in China and as of September 2017, it had 258.3 million monthly active users.
JD.com is also a leader in high tech and artificial intelligence delivery systems using drones, autonomous vehicles and robots. It has recently started testing robotic delivery services and building drone delivery airports, and has unveiled its first autonomous delivery truck.
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