Page 86 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 7 December 2004
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The next is capitalising on competitive advantage—this means playing to our strengths, directing government resources where the sustainable returns will be the greatest, and understanding where future possibilities might lie and acting promptly. Then there is leveraging intellectual assets. The territory has a remarkable and unique stock of human capital and world-class institutions, including public sector organisations. Building on these assets presents our greatest development opportunity.
The next is providing supportive planning and competitive government infrastructure. This means not only providing efficient and reliable infrastructure and services to the business community but also being much more focused on urban planning and, indeed, other government services infrastructure, so that we are supporting our economic objectives.
Supporting business does not mean giving existing business all sorts of concessions and adding a profit; it means being involved in those things that will grow business and business activity.
While our strategies mark the way for the medium to long term, there is also activity in the short term. In the next few months we will see the creation of the territory’s first small business commissioner, despite the misplaced negativity from the opposition. The “open for business” sign will go up in the territory’s first large venture capital investment fund.
There will be the addition of New South Wales government resources to the ACT Office of Film, Television and Digital Media—ScreenACTion—to broaden its work across the capital region. There are the continued successful efforts of the Australian Capital Tourism Commission to brand Canberra under the “See yourself in Canberra” banner.
There is the establishment of a one-stop shop for business services at 220 Northbourne Avenue, which will house Business ACT, the Canberra Business Advisory Service, ScreenACTion and the Small Business Commissioner. And we are host to the ACT office of Austrade, as we work hand in glove with them. New and existing businesses will be able to easily access all the information they need at one location.
There will be a commencement of a new expert panel mentoring program known as building innovative business. Changes to the knowledge fund to provide greater support for equity funding and collaborative activities between small firms and local research institutions will be implemented. Further effort will be made to deepen the export relationships for ACT businesses that the government has established with organisations such as the Greater Washington Initiative, USCD and CONNECT in Santiago, Larta in Los Angeles and the London Development Authority, and there will be the establishment of the ACT’s first business angel network.
My office has recently convened a symposium on population and prosperity in order to look beyond the simplistic notions and the even more simplistic solutions that have been hitting the airwaves in recent days.
One of the challenges facing my department and government as a whole is the skill shortage facing Canberra. It is a very complex issue but we are responding. We will be
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