Page 558 - Week 02 - Thursday, 9 March 2006
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programs, which brings vocational education and training support to year 10 students and other niche skills programs such as the training pathways program.
We are undertaking economic development work with our partners in the broader capital region through forums such as the regional management framework, the Regional Leaders Forum and the Capital Regional Development Board. We have good working relationships with both the Australian and New South Wales governments on regional development initiatives.
The indigenous business development strategy that is articulated in the white paper has now led to 23 indigenous businesses being facilitated into mainstream business assisted programs and 39 indigenous businesses being assisted by the Canberra Business Advisory Service.
Then there are the small important business environment infrastructure initiatives that we have pursued on the back of the white paper strategies. We have delivered on the NICTA funding deal, and the organisation’s largest purpose node will shortly be part of the west city landscape. NICTA’s presence and impact on the ACT economy continues to build and we are now positioning to secure our share of the additional $251 million the Australian government has committed to NICTA to 2011. In May last year we formalised the ANU City West Deed of Agreement. That has now resulted in the ANU partnering with Baulderstone Hornibrook to develop City West and to integrate the university with Civic. The project alone is worth around $600 million in private sector development and will support somewhere around 7,000 jobs.
The Convention Centre upgrade extends beyond a refurbishment exercise. There will be major functional improvements to the centre, and the deal negotiated with Intercontinental Hotels Group last year will allow us to strategically manage the development of this site and Canberra’s convention facilities over the medium to longer term.
We have significantly extended the reach and depth of the $10 million venture capital fund by partnering with ANU and the Motor Trades Association of Australia to create ANU Connect. This means that the government’s investment, which is a repayable grant, has immediately leveraged a further $20 million in private sector capital and brought commercialisation of ANU’s vast store of intellectual property into the mix.
In 2005 we also fixed up the inherited problems of the Impulse Airlines demise. Qantas Defence Services has now established an aircraft heavy maintenance operation for Hercules aircraft at the long unused Impulse hangar and, with it, 40 highly skilled trade positions and a real shot in the arm for our defence technology industry. The agreement also includes a significant Canberra destination marketing commitment by Qantas.
The white paper has also played a significant part in shaping the government’s response to the revitalisation of Civic. Beyond City Hill and the raft of initiatives being overseen by the Canberra Central Taskforce, over the next eight years around $2 billion in development projects in destined for the city. Last Saturday the Canberra Times put this on a par with the levels of development occurring in the CBDs of our major capitals.
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