UNITED STATES President Donald Trump has announced that ByteDance has received tentative approval for an agreement with the US Government to resolve the outstanding issues, which will now include Oracle and Walmart together investing to acquire 20 percent of the newly formed TikTok Global business.

As a part of the deal, TikTok is creating a new company called TikTok Global that will be responsible for providing all TikTok services to users in the US and most of the users in the rest of the world. Today, the administration has conditionally approved a landmark deal where Oracle becomes TikTok's secure cloud provider.

TikTok Global will be majority owned by American investors, including Oracle and Walmart. TikTok Global will be an independent American company, headquartered in the US, with four Americans out of the five member board of directors.

All the TikTok technology will be in possession of TikTok Global, and comply with US laws and privacy regulations. Data privacy for 100 million American TikTok users will be quickly established by moving all American data to Oracle's Generation 2 Cloud data centers, the most secure cloud data centres in the world.

Based on decades of experience securing the world's most sensitive data, Oracle's Generation 2 Cloud fully isolates running applications and responds to security threats autonomously. This unique technology eliminates the risk of foreign governments spying on American users or trying to influence them with disinformation.

In addition to its equity position, Walmart will bring its omni-channel retail capabilities including its Walmart.com assortment, eCommerce marketplace, fulfillment, payment and measurement-as-a-service advertising service.

TikTok Global will create more than 25,000 new jobs in the US and TikTok Global will pay more than $5 billion in new tax dollars to the US Treasury.

TikTok Global, together with Oracle, SIG, General Atlantic, Sequoia, Walmart and Coatue will create an educational initiative to develop and deliver an AI-driven online video curriculum to teach children from inner cities to the suburbs, a variety of courses from basic reading and math to science, history and computer engineering.

TikTok Global will have an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in less than 12 months and be listed on a US Exchange. After the IPO, US ownership of TikTok Global will increase and continue to grow over time.

With this agreement, TikTok Global will able to continue to provide a hundred million Americans with access to the social network they love, and spark much needed competition in the market for social networks.

About Oracle
The Oracle Cloud offers a complete suite of integrated applications for sales, service, marketing, human resources, finance, supply chain and manufacturing, plus highly automated and secure Generation 2 infrastructure featuring the Oracle Autonomous Database. Oracle (NYSE: ORCL).  www.oracle.com.

About Walmart
Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better - anytime and anywhere - in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, over 265 million customers and members visit approximately 11,500 stores under 56 banners in 27 countries and eCommerce websites. With fiscal year 2020 revenue of $524 billion, Walmart employs over 2.2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting corporate.walmart.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at twitter.com/walmart.

Trademarks
Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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THE Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) has aligned with the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) in becoming a lead agency with authority to issue Australian tourism businesses with the globally recognised ‘Safe Travel’ stamp.

The stamp has been developed by the global travel and tourism industry body to recognise businesses which adopt standardised health and hygiene protocols. ATEC has incorporated the Safe Travel branding - designed as a recognisable health and safety trademark for consumers globally - into its COVID Ready program.

“ATEC has developed the rigorous, sector specific ‘COVID Ready’ program which aligns with the standards defined by the WTTC,” ATEC managing director Peter Shelley said..

"The ATEC program enables tourism businesses to identify covid risk points within the customer journey and implement risk management solutions, all of which are captured in a COVID Ready plan aligned with state and national regulatory requirements.

“ATEC has incorporated the WTTC Safe Travels branding as part of our Tourism Trade Checklist which recognises businesses who have completed and uploaded a COVID Ready Plan. The WTTC Safe Travel global branding is another level of recognition which will assist Australian tourism businesses to stand out in the international marketplace.

“As an organisation with the authority to endorse tourism businesses, ATEC is able to connect Australian tourism businesses with global Safe Travel protocols which quickly verifies a business’s compliance.”

Over the past few months ATEC has been developing a comprehensive strategy to meet the needs of the industry and expectations of the global traveller once international borders open.  The strategy, titled #TravelSafeAustralia includes three components working together to ensure quality COVID Safe experiences, the components include:

• COVID Ready suppliers – all suppliers servicing the international market have completed and uploaded a COVID Ready plan into ATEC Tourism Trade Checklist portal and have  received the WTTC Safe Travels stamp and ready for international visitors.
• COVID Risk Reduction – an alignment with goPassport biometric risk management system, a comprehensive, real-time COVID-19 alert system for inbound international travellers. 
• COVID Safe Managed Travel - Australian based inbound tour operators (ITOs) taking accountability for the COVID Safe travel of international visitors from arrival to departure.

"#TravelSafeAustralia is a world leading strategy to re-engage international travellers in a safe and structured way, delivering a strong and clear message around both our expectations and responsibilities in mitigating the risk of COVID in our community and for our visitors.
 
“We are pleased to be able to connect to the global Safe Travel program in supporting the WTTC in its work to ensure the safety of the global travel workforce and travellers as the sector shifts to a new normal.”

www.atec.net.au

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THE newly released State of Industry 2020 Report from Caravan Industry Association of Australia lays out the past performance of Australia’s caravan and camping industry and highlights the opportunity for the industry to drive recovery.

In 2019, the total caravan and camping visitor nights exceeded 60 million and 14 million trips for the first time.

"When you reflect that there are 24.8 million Australians and 8.4 million households, caravan and camping holidays has become an integral part of our national travelling behaviour," a spokesperson said.

"Without a doubt, the industry has recently been overshadowed by an uncertain world where a devastating bushfire season coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic has firmly applied the brakes on what was an incredible period of growth for Australia’s caravan and camping industry."

To put this into context, since 2010 the market has grown by:

•       an additional 5.5 million caravan and camping trips;
•       an extra 17.3 million nights spent caravan and camping annually; and
•       over 196,000 recreational vehicles have been manufactured and registered.

Caravan Industry Association of Australia CEO, Stuart Lamont, said, “Whilst looking back at 2019 may seem unimportant in the current climate, the year marked a number of important milestones for the industry."

It is the year that according to Tourism Research Australia, caravan and camping became the most popular holiday type for Australians. This is no easy achievement when we consider the significant competitive nature of the tourism sector.

“Looking forward, we are optimistic about the future of the caravan and camping industry, especially as Australians look to support local business, reconnect with loved ones and spend time in nature after such a challenging year” Mr Lamont said.

The State of Industry 2020 Report provides an important benchmark and highlights the importance of the caravan and camping sector to the performance of Australia’s visitor economy, bringing together the many different sectors and operating conditions relevant to the caravan and camping industry

Reflecting on the year prior helps to paint a picture as to the wide-reaching positive impact the industry has on regional Australia and the manufacturing industry.

The caravan and camping industry is incredibly well placed to drive tourism and economic recovery through encouraging job creation, creating strong value chains and supporting regional economies," Mr Lamont said.

www.caravanindustry.com.au

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QUEENSLAND politicians vying for government in the upcoming election are being put on notice that now is the time to stop millions of dollars in profits flowing overseas to foreign owned construction companies.

Australian Owned Contractors (AOC) has launched the ‘Let Us Build Queensland’ campaign, demanding that Queensland projects be built by Queensland and Australian owned companies.

The six-week campaign strategically targets marginal seats ahead of the State election, focusing on the Brisbane and Gold Coast seats of Aspley, Mansfield and Gaven and the regional seats of Townsville and Mundingburra.

AOC CEO Brent Crockford and AOC director Scott Power said the campaign deliberately pulled no punches, including election-style advertising and an online petition to force action.

“Voters in marginal seats will be mobilised and politicians pressured to make action on this issue part of their election platform,” Mr Crockford said.
“All of Australia’s major construction companies are now foreign owned and they dominate across our biggest public infrastructure projects.

“In fact, 95 cents in every dollar spent by Governments on these major projects across the country now goes to foreign owned companies.

“The ‘Let Us Build Queensland’ campaign seeks to draw a line in the sand ahead of the State election, and to illustrate to Queenslanders who really reap the benefits of our biggest projects – and it’s not Australian companies.”

The AOC represents 18 of Australia’s leading home-grown and owned contracting companies and has launched the campaign to fight for local opportunity and competition, local skills development, and domestic company growth.

Mr Power said most Queenslanders were unaware of just how high the cards were stacked against local construction and engineering firms when it came to bidding for and winning major work.

“Our companies regularly take on and successfully deliver projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but we are locked out and left fighting for sub-contracting scraps when it comes to leading the biggest projects,” Mr Power said.

“Capability is rarely a factor in these situations – it comes down to ability to take on sole financial risk when procurement is bundled together in mega-projects by government agencies.

“It’s a one-size-fits-all mentality to tendering which relegates Australian companies to second class subcontractor status while foreign owned multi-nationals lead the work on our biggest national projects.”

Mr Crockford said the AOC campaign was unapologetic in drawing voter attention to the issue and urged Queenslanders to sign the petition which called on local politicians to put a stop to offshore favouritism.

The ‘Let Us Build Queensland’ petition is available via the campaign webpage: www.letusbuild.com.au

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