$1.17 MILLION FOR INNOVATIVE WA COMPANY

12 July 2004
105/04

West Perth telecommunications company, Cortec Systems Pty Ltd, plans to make Internet voice calls easier, clearer and cheaper with a $1.17 million R&D Start grant from the Howard Government.

I was pleased to announce this funding on behalf Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane at Cortec's offices in Western Australia.

Cortec has developed the "Freeway" suite of products to enable businesses and Internet Service Providers to make phone calls over the Internet without the associated problems and costs of poor voice quality and complex network administration.

The company expects to achieve export sales of more than $81.6 million with its "Freeway" products by 2008-09. The project is also expected to generate employment for highly skilled specialists in the ICT sector in Australia.

Cortec was established in September 2002 to further develop and commercialise the results of research and development undertaken by the Australian Telecommunications Cooperative Research Centre.

I congratulate Cortec on winning this R&D Start grant, which is funded through the Howard Government's original $3 billion Backing Australia's Ability package.

As part of the successor to that program, the $5.3 billion Backing Australia's Ability - Building Our Future through Science and Innovation initiative, the R&D Start program will become part of a new $1 billion Commercial Ready program.

The Commercial Ready program will have a much wider scope, supporting proof-of-concept activity, early R&D, and assisting companies to commercialise their ideas. It will be a 'one stop shop' for businesses looking for Government support for innovation.

I look forward to more innovative companies developing exciting products for Australian business as well as for lucrative export markets under this expanded program.

For more information visit www.ausindustry.gov.au or call AusIndustry on 13 2846.

Media Contact: Carina Tan-Van Baren (02) 6277 7480 or 0439 425 373