024: Giuseppe Porcelli’s Vision for Vanuatu

Create, Conceive, Commercialise!

That’s the motto of the Lakeba Group, a leading Australian tech company.  And it’s perfect for Vanuatu, a fast-emerging country seeking the best way forward at the same time as “keeping all the good stuff” it has already as a tropical paradise.

Listen in as Lakeba CEO Giuseppe Porcelli outlines for Richard and Lance his forward-thinking concepts for Vanuatu to move ahead into emerging technologies – one clean export that is immune to travel restrictions!  According to Giuseppe these ideas can be a reality, earning for Vanuatu in as little as 24 months!

Lakeba Group comes in second amongst Australian technology companies ranked by the Financial Times’ Asia Pacific 500 high growth companies. And in the top 10% of all companies and sectors ranked across the region.

Mentioned in this podcast…

Phone Richard on +61 2 8007 3803 (Sydney, Australia)
Phone Lance on +61 7 3040 9977 (yes, he’s in Vanuatu but this is an Australian Skype number)

Pacific Haven Resort

Melanesian Waterfront Real Estate Limited website

Lakeba Website

T R A N S C R I P T

Speaker 1 LANCE HUNT (00:00):
This is the real estate opportunity and lifestyles of the South Pacific podcast, a podcast about personal opportunity and financial prosperity. I’m Lance Hunt from Melanesian Waterfront Real Estate Limited and living in the South Pacific paradise Island Nation of Vanuatu, a paradise in more ways than one these days. I have with me online today two gentlemen, most of you know of Richard Butler in Sydney, Australia. Richard was two times Trade Commissioner to Australia for the Republic of Vanuatu. He’s a successful real estate developer with more than 40 years experience and I will let Richard introduce our special guests today. Hello Richard, Welcome to our podcast.

Speaker 2 RICHARD BUTLER (00:41):
Good day Lance and thanks for that intro. Yeah, look, we’ve got an extraordinary opportunity today to introduce an entrepreneurial leader in the new tech revolution known as blockchain technology. Giuseppe Porcelli with corporate offices in Australia, Italy, India, and employing over 150 web developers is about to share his vision for Vanuatu with us. The prestigious Australian financial review newspaper last year, voted Giuseppe’s company, one of the top 10 IT companies in Australasia and Giuseppe is nothing shorter than IT where blockchain fountain of ideas and concepts, but more importantly I’ve learned that he has the ability to follow them through reality and with my last count he can expand on it. I know he has over six very successful IT business modules operating worldwide. Listeners of this podcast would know that from 2012 to 2019 I held a position as the trade commissioner, which you’ve just mentioned Lance for the Republic of Vanuatu, but my major brief from the deputy prime minister was to find worldwide interested in versus to come into Vanuatu to help develop the Nation’s, ecotourism, trade, agriculture and technology.

Speaker 2 RICHARD BUTLER (01:48):
Vanuatu has just 300,000 population as a learning problem with over 30% of the population is under 15 and that percentage is growing yearly and they require gainful employment. The government of Vanuatu wishes to welcome international corporate investors such as Giuseppe to help the nation provide employment for this new millennium. Today, I’m introducing a guy that I would call a visionary businessman to you with just the right profile that the government has asked me to find for this nation building plan for the Vanuatu government. Giuseppe Porcelli, is the CEO of the prestigious Australian company, Lakeba, a blockchain technology specialist who migrated to Australia in 2014 from Italy with his family. So he’s already a convert to what Lance and I promote every week, which is basically advice on thinking outside the square with a plan B concept. So with no further redo, I’d like to welcome Giuseppe to the show today and ask him to sort of share with us his vision of what he has for Vanuatu in the form of blockchain technology and web development. Hello Giuseppe, Thanks for coming.

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (02:55):
Hello Richard, thank you very much for the great words and thank you very much for the very deep introduction of myself and the business that I head here in Australia. Yes, you’re right. I just moved on, recently over to Australia, but since my move I established a business called Lakeba, that effectively it’s a reverse incubator. What means a reverse incubator, that means we understand what the industries need and we build solutions to solve their problems. The way we do that, it’s very new and innovative, especially into the Southeast Asia Pacific area. The way we are doing that at the moment is talking very deeply and frankly with the leaders of different industries. And particularly with the financial services industry, so the bank, we talk to them and we try to understand where they are not performing properly and we try to understand how technologies can help them to save more time and to eventually perform better in terms of expense because we know all that technologies are there for helping the businesses to perform better, to save our life and to let us as humankind to spend our time more with our family rather than as a in the seventies working into factories for 12 hours per day.

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (04:26):
So my business has built in the last sixty years a number of adventures and particularly again into financial services and I haven’t noted a gap. I noted that in Australia as a second goal part of the export over the mind that already it’s led by these countries, we have the opportunity to become the second largest exporter of technology. There are a lot of great mindsets. There are a lot of entrepreneurs that are able to pull together the right teams and the right knowledge to explore the new products. So the technologies, but in my personal experience, I noted that there is a gap and the gap is the human resources to build the asset, to build the technology to be exported. And I started myself as you properly said before I employ about 150 people and I found myself very difficult to put together these relatively enormous numbers for a country of 25 million people and in terms of the skills in them, solve them.

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (05:42):
Australia is a competitor for example, to an older country like Italy. It’s a brand new country and the 200 years of history behind us are not enough to say that we have all the skills that the country needs to afford, the next era challenges. Saying that based on my own business experience, I find that the best way to accelerate the development and the commercialization of my technology, well they’re not just trying to hide in the country but to hide as well overseas. So I started developing a large team of development, particularly in India where I currently have more than hundred staff that doesn’t count into the 150 that you meant before and they all, work for this business in a very, let’s say uncomfortable mode because they are on a different time zone for example, because culturally they are not very ready to work with super skilled people that lives in Australia for example.

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (06:53):
So I found that Australia needs help yet to develop its own asset ended the next product. And I believe that as I said before comparing the time zones is an issue for example, between India and Vanuatu that sometime over here it’s at the same time zone of Sydney. It’s quite an upside. It’s an amazing opportunity for the Vanuatu government to consider working very closely with the Australian brother and sisters with the Australian government or with the Australian businesses to develop the next generation, all the human resources for the technology industry. The new revolution it’s coming and the Vanuatu have the opportunity to now start developing the human resources, to developing the skills, to developing the brain that the fourth industrial revolution is looking for and working closely with the, he’s a friend, country Australia will have the opportunity to employ thousands and thousands of Vanuatu young people that really will be involved into the technology industry.

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (08:17):
So my vision is that it’s the time now to come over Vanuatu and invest seriously. But we need the support of the local government and the local community. I heard that in Vanuatu they are working very hard in forming a legal and the lawyer’s skills, but the technology is as well part of the future. And if we can become a bridge between, for example, the Australians universities with the Vanuatu universities, between the Australian government and the association we did the Vanuatu Government association making easy to bring knowledge and skills over there and to form the next generation of software development and use our, for example, my business, our existing infrastructure to just employ people. Then it was done very simply. So to summarize, my vision is to work with a strong partner in Vanuatu particularly with the government to establish an information technology campus and to forward in the next 24, 36 months. As Such strong number of university people.

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (09:40):
So my vision is to establish, we need the support of the local community of Vanuatu. And we need the support and blessing of the Vanuatu government, an IT campus information technology school that will form in the next 24 months, 36 months, thousands of employees for the Australian market and eventually for the South East Pacific market in terms of software development services provided. And we can do that because we already have the client base. We already have the product, the distribution. I promise you that it would be quite difficult to start from scratch in terms of building the skills and then only afterwards start to sell those skills. As I say that, the beginning of my message, we are a reverse incubator. We understand the problem first and then we backwards the solution and we deploy that. This is exactly the same.

Speaker 2 RICHARD BUTLER (10:42):
Yeah. Giuseppe on your wall of your office. You have a slogan, three C’s, which is Conceive, Create and commercialize, isn’t it?

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (10:51):
Yes, that is. Thank you Richard and a good reminder from you. Yes, Create It’s the most important core part of the business but before to create you need to conceive an idea and often you create the idea you need to commercialize it. Yes, our business is exactly that You know conceive, create, commercialize. But the core, the soul of the business. It’s the way we smartly understand already where to sell it and in terms of the IT camps I was meaning before. Imagine the scenario where the first day, our new form of skill, it’s ready to be employed. Imagine the scenario where the job is just waiting for him or let’s say the project to join and to be developed. It’s just there that will impact such positively the incomes for the Vanuatu community that is incomparable with anything else because all the ingredients for the cake are just there, the sales site, the infrastructure for the distribution, and once we start building the skills, then they will just have to be ready to go black Dean and we’ll start to generating wealthiness for their community.

Speaker 2 RICHARD BUTLER (12:12):
Well, I’ve had a chance as both Lance and know, I’ve had more chances than Lance, but I’ve had a chance to visit your offices in Sydney and get to know you over an extended period of time. And there’s a lot of people who talk, the talk that you’ve also gotta be able to walk with it. And Giuseppe, I know that you are a man that can walk that talk into something. And with the Vanuatu government, South Pacific communication cable, which is now for 4G lte being available, this gives you the basis of being able to be only 49 milliseconds away connection wise to the markets of Paris, London, New York, Sydney for example, so this, there is a concept already in place. There is a practical link for you to be able to train people in Vanuatu and I can assure you that the youth of the Vanuatu are hungry for it.

Speaker 2 RICHARD BUTLER (13:01):
They’re lean and they’re looking for work. They are going into their high schools and what happens after high school. This is the reason why the Vanuatu government is so proactive at this point of time in finding people like yourself and asking me if I can find people like you to come into Vanuatu, not only to invest financially but also to invest your time and effort. Basically you can’t put a price on experience and the experience that you have now, I’m not a tech expert, but Lance might have a few questions. Lance, would you have a couple of questions you’d like to ask Giuseppe or share something with him?

Speaker 1 LANCE HUNT (13:34):
Yes. Giuseppe, it was great to hear your concepts for Vanuatu and how it works out here. And as you were speaking, I was thinking how good it is because the current export of labor force from Vanuatu means the, the men and women, mothers and fathers physically go to Australia or New Zealand to work and they do find work in agriculture in particular, but they have to leave the rest of their family behind. And I know many families where father or the mother disappears to Australia or New Zealand for six months, nine months, 10 months. And it does affect the rest of the family in a negative way, despite the fact that when they come back, they can move forward financially thanks to the extra income. But the great thing about IT work is that you don’t have to reap people out of Vanuatu to do it. They can stay right here, go home at night to their families and work in their own country and yet have a positive effect in another country.

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (14:34):
Thank you very much Richard for remembering me about the already existing 4g infrastructure and the 49 millisecond away. You want to, better than just remember me, that the ingredients are already there. With such great infrastructure of communication that will simplify the immediate positioning of Vanuatu in terms of the competition, the 49 millisecond are very important. Imagine if we want to support businesses based in Australia with the customer here based in Vanuatu without to eventually have people moving out of their villages or moving out of their own Island. Imagine the scenario where they can work from home or they can work from an office that is just five steps away from the house. That is the magic side of the technology. And eventually we have as well another, relatively speaking, a great news here following it, the Covid-19 the world has learned even better than before, how technology can still help running the business.

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (15:49):
So the game to continue okay, Even the impossibility to move the people physically. So we have a, especially into the technology industry, we have learned a very important lesson. Doesn’t matter where the people work from, but what matters. It’s the quality and the effort and the passion that people put every day in their daily job. And I think in Vanuatu the ingredients of the passion and the desire to find a great job at their home rather than be traveling overseas to find a job. It’s just there. What we have to bring there, In our association, we did the infrastructure. It’s now the knowledge, the education. We have to bring just that small part that is how to do, if we bring the “how to do” and in our language, the “how to do” is a how to coding a software for example.

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (16:47):
Then it’s done. The game is on and the Vanuatu, will be soon competing with the countries like Philippines, Malaysia or even, or start with say India where different times zones, distances, infrastructure issues because I promise you all the time that we have to speak with our remote offices in India, it’s a challenge because the connection is not 49 milliseconds away, but it’s a 490 milliseconds approximately.

Speaker 2 RICHARD BUTLER (17:18)
Right, right.

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (17:19)
So 10 times lower everything. When you say a word over Skype, the word get there in 10 times slower than Vanuatu, so I think Vanuatu, is strategically well positioned and I believe that we all together with our knowledge and with the government strengths, we can put together a partnership and give to the people the service, a pleasure to work from their own country.

Speaker 2 RICHARD BUTLER (17:50):
Well Giuseppe, I think we’ve sort of covered everything in there. This is our initial sort of introduction to you and the caber and also our real estate company in Vanuatu, Pacific Haven Resort has joined forces with Giuseppe’s company for the development of the Pacific Haven resort over there and we’ll be talking more about that at a later time. I don’t want to try and provide too much more information today because you’ve certainly given us something to think about. One of the things that I love and I heard it come out of your talking today was the word passion and I have a passion in my involvement in Vanuatu, which is now since 2008 Lance has a passion as well. You have now caught that passion for Vanuatu after your trip over there with me in November where you spent four days over there looking through the main town of Port Vila and getting an understanding on how Vanuatu life works out.

Speaker 2 RICHARD BUTLER (18:41):
So we really thank you for your added efforts and concepts, ideas and visions for the Republic of Vanuatu, Giuseppe. We will call it that day at the moment as far as this podcast is concerned. But if I might, I would like to do another interview with you perhaps maybe in a couple of weeks time and we could talk about Bricklets and I have been talking about Bricklets, on my podcast prior that I’d really like to bring you back if I may in a couple of weeks and have another talk about the Bricklets concept and how this fending into the Vanuatu real estate. So all that, thank you Giuseppe. Thank you for your time and effort. Lance, did you have anything you wanted to finish off and ask or Giuseppe or myself?

Speaker 1 LANCE HUNT (19:22):
I am not at the moment. Yeah, very nice to meet you through a zoom meeting, Giuseppe. Last time we met of course you were sitting here in my office room at least. And we were having a nice couple of while we were observing the waves at the Tuma Bay. But for now I think that we can draw our podcast to a conclusion. And I with you, Richard, I look forward to hearing more from you, Giuseppe, about the blockchain, the bricklets, and some of the other exciting concepts, concepts that you have going and how they will have a positive impact on this very fast emerging country of Vanuatu.

Speaker 3 GIUSEPPE PORCELLI (20:00):
Thank you very much, gentlemen for having me today. And, yes, I will be available on the next couple of weeks for discussion about Bricklets.

Speaker 2 RICHARD BUTLER (20:10):
Thanks for sharing. Thank you Lance, goodbye listeners, and we look forward to talking to you in the next podcast. Thanks a lot.

Speaker 1 LANCE HUNT (20:17):
So that’s a wrap for our lifestyles podcast again, and we look forward to being in your earbuds next time.

What’s the weather like at the Pacific Haven Resort site on magnificent Teouma Bay. via Port Vila today?