A little bit of Sydney has arrived in London with the recreation of Bondi Beach on the South Bank of the River Thames.

The beach, complete with pristine sand, life-guards, deck chairs and surfboards overlooks some of London’s most famous landmarks including St Paul’s Cathedral.

Bondi on Thames, on June 24, is the launch event for the inaugural G’dayUK promotion, a series of events positioning Australia as an innovative and thriving economy.

The NSW Department of State and Regional Development is supporting G’dayUK to promote the State as a great place to live, work and do business.

Eight innovative Sydney companies will showcase their products and services to the UK market as part of NSW’s participation in G’dayUK 2009.

The Sydney companies are taking part in the NSW Innovation Showcase in London on 26 June and in Manchester on June 29.

The companies cover products such as security and surveillance systems, solar technology, cancer detection and wave energy conversion.

They will be pitching their products and services to potential investors, joint venture partners, agents and distributors.

The UK is the sixth largest economy in the world and an important market for NSW. NSW’s total bilateral merchandise trade with the UK was worth $4.1 billion in 2007-08.

The UK is a major investment partner for Australia − the second largest source of total foreign investment and the second largest destination of Australian investment.

The UK is also an important source of tourists for NSW – making up about 14 per cent of all visitors to the State last year.

Representatives from the Department of State and Regional Development will attend business events to promote the State’s strengths in financial services, clean technology and ICT.

• Angusta Systems, Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh
• Debraneys, McMahons Point
• DigiSensory Technologies, Ultimo
• Dyesol Industries, Queanbeyan
• Fermiscan Holdings, Australian Technology Park
• Netcat.Biz, North Sydney
• Oceanlinx, Botany
• TTG Transportation, Sydney.