Page 3038 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 5 December 1989
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For the first time in Australia, a government will be using its strengths in the education field to attract and assist business investment. Work force development assistance, one of three categories of assistance available under the new arrangements, will promote the use of ACT based institutions and private organisations which provide training, recruitment and staffing services to companies. We have identified key sectors for assistance, including tourism related industries; business and financial services; environmentally sound light manufacturing, including, in the advanced technology sectors of electronics, communications and information technology; and, finally, personal services, including health care, leisure and recreation.
We are supporting industry across a broad spectrum, large and small, local and international, not just through directed assistance but also by reducing red tape and eliminating unnecessary regulation. On 20 October I announced that the ACT was to become a signatory to the Australian civil offsets agreement. This will enable the ACT to take advantage of investment opportunities arising out of the major purchasing activities of other State governments and the Commonwealth. Under the agreement, the manufacturers of high-technology goods are obliged to make a real contribution to the development of Australian industry. The ACT is well placed to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the offsets program, particularly in advanced technology manufacturing, research and development, and the export marketing of existing products and services. Offsets will be an important element in our strategy to boost private sector investment in key sectors.
We have also initiated measures which lay the foundation for the future. The multifunction polis, or MFP, proposal for the development of an integrated industrial and social system based on twenty-first century technology and lifestyles is one which has captured the imagination of governments and industry around the world. This Government has placed the ACT's case for a role in the MFP firmly on the agenda of the participating institutions and companies in Australia, Japan and the other countries involved. We have articulated an ACT vision based on our strengths in education, leisure and research. In government, we will continue to pursue the ideal of a Territory economy which interacts with, and indeed leads, the world in markets for ideas and investment for our future.
Another project for the future in which we have led the way is the proposal for a very fast train linking Canberra directly with Sydney and Melbourne. The VFT is a project in which I have taken a keen and personal interest. Within only a few weeks of taking government, we had endorsed the project in principle and initiated a number of actions to ensure that the issues associated with the project were identified and resolved before final decisions were required.
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