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Australians have suddenly woken up to the big growth opportunities in WA, but are we prepared?

ICE cream maker Azzura Gelati has scooped 20 prizes at this year's WA Dairy Product Awards at the Sheraton Hotel.

Greater collaboration is the key to turning WA's bright ideas into commercial success.

Every cloud has a silver lining, so the saying goes. So which WA companies delivered the best returns to investors as the cold winds of the global financial crisis wreaked havoc?

Progressive or backward? It depends which side of the fence you sit on.

IT may come as a surprise, but judging by the results of WA Business News' latest survey of Total Shareholder Returns, the safest place for investors to put their money over the last year has been at the most speculative end of the share market.

Ordinary Australians will bear the brunt of the government's proposed ETS.

WHILE junior explorers dominated the 10 best-performing Western Australian stocks last financial year, was there a defining characteristic that bound together the worst performers for the year? A lack of scale would seem to be one possibility, with the 10

NO matter which way you cut it, the 2008-09 financial year was a shocker for investors in local companies, with only 110 of the 730 or so Western Australian-listed companies managing a positive return of any sort.

THE global financial crisis had a marked impact on Western Australia's engineering contractors during the year as the slowdown forced resources companies to scale back and defer numerous new developments and expansions.

THE global financial downturn has had a dramatic impact on the dividend yields of those Western Australian stocks that still pay regular dividends.

WITH much front page hype, the federal government last week announced what it claimed was Australia's biggest ever deal when PetroChina agreed to buy 2.25 million tonnes of LNG a year for 20 years, worth $50 billion.

The Western Australian Trade Opportunities Service is operated by the International Trade Centre of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia.

As Fortescue Metals Group becomes established, it also starts to look and act big.

LANDCORP believes it has a handle on the housing shortage in the Pilbara, despite negotiations being terminated on a significant residential development in Karratha.

MANY of the misconceptions about e-commerce technology and the potential benefits to the corporate world have been re-evaluated since the dot.com crash of 2000.

FREMANTLE City Council has confirmed the end of the long-running dispute over rents at Fremantle Markets.

NOBODY should be too concerned about the differences between partners in the $30 billion Browse LNG project over how the venture should be developed, according to Woodside Petroleum chief executive Don Voelte.

A REVIEW commissioned by the City of Perth has identified a range of shortcomings with its existing planning schemes.

WESTERN Australian regional powerbroker Brendon Grylls said he would not prop up the Muresk agricultural college with funding unless it had a long-term future.

FORMER musician Darryl Edwards founded lighting, staging, events and production company Matrix Productions Australia in 1987.

LOCAL firm Kellabox has released a portable, self-contained data centre that effectively eliminates the need for a server room to house a business's networking equipment.

IF deteriorating income streams and skyrocketing costs weren't enough, charities are now bracing for a tougher year ahead with an expected surge in demand for services through 2010.

Perth-based project implementation, engineering and advisory group, Emerson Stewart is set to merge with national risk management company, Greencap.

Heavy equipment sales and rental company, Emeco Holdings has posted a net profit after tax of $13.3 million for the year to June 30, a fall of 14.5 per cent, which included significant one-off impairment and restructuring charges.

Cash Converters has posted a record profit of $16.2 million for the year to June 30, a gain of 6.5 per cent, on the back of healthy revenue growth driven by increased personal loans, financial services commission and corporate store revenue.

Tap Oil has posted a loss of $4.9 million in its half year results to June 30 after the explosion at Varanus Island impacted upon production levels and, in turn, affected sales.

Uranium exploration company, Extract Resources has launched a $91 million capital raising via a non-renounceable rights issue and private placement to institutional investors to accelerate exploration activities at its Rossing South project in Namibia.

The state government has announced that publicly-owned generator Verve Energy and electricity retailer Synergy would not be re-amalgamated, as part of a strategy to secure Western Australia's future energy needs.

Automobile components and building materials manufacturer, Schaffer Corporation has posted a profit of $10.5 million for the year to June 30, down 4 per cent on last year's results against a 13 per cent fall in group revenue.

The peak body for the nation's construction industry believes a dip in constrution work in the June quarter is only the tip of the iceberg, predicting a sharp decline to unfold as the effects of credit crunch and economic downturn begin to show through.

Dramatic drops in key commodity prices, and the effect of the economic downturn, have impacted heavily upon the bottom line of exploration and mining outift, Kagara.