Special Report: SME Roundtable

It doesn’t happen often, that a state government minister and their direct political opponent find themselves agreeing with each other.

Make no mistake about it, more and more small and medium businesses will start to disappear from the WA market, because big business is squeezing out the little guys.

Training Minister Ljiljana Ravlich has introduced several training initiatives to meet a target of 30,000 apprentices and trainees by 2009.

There is no one single, simple solution to the skills shortage faced by SMEs and business in general, says Sean Gavin from Gavin Construction, but what he suggested as a starting point was an integrated, multi-pronged approach by government and industry.

As director of Perth hospitality company, Beaumonde Catering, Mark Dimmitt knows first-hand the difficulties of running a small business.