Page 3238 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 17 September 2013
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Canberra company M5 Network Security to provide increased cyber security and communications to its Australian clients.
Similarly, Canberra has a strong competitive advantage in the more traditional defence-related industries. The presence of the headquarters of the Department of Defence in Canberra means that both prime defence contractors and innovative defence SMEs also need to be located here.
In May of this year three Canberra companies, EOS, CEA Technologies and Insitec, were selected by Northrop under the Australian Defence Materiel Organisation’s global supply chain program. And as a result, the companies will share in contracts valued at $7.4 million.
More surprisingly, there is a small but growing mining services cluster built around the activities of Geoscience Australia. Companies including Aspen Medical, Datapod, Corporate Air, Digital Core, Locata and Contractor Compliance are all active in the resources, oil and gas sectors.
These case studies form an important part of the profile of the territory as an investment destination. To build on this profile, a key priority of the business development strategy was the establishment of InvestACT. The InvestACT team is now taking shape and the investment strategy, an important piece of positioning work, will be launched later in the year.
The strategy has been developed following the completion of a benchmarking study that compared investment approaches in six other strongly public sector focused cities around the world. The strategy will be based on a proactive approach to investment promotion and strong collaboration between government and the private sector. In particular, InvestACT will target the re-investment pipeline, that is, the growing footprint of major Australian and international companies that already have a presence in the ACT or companies that we feel should be here.
We are not only keen to attract capital and investment to Canberra but also skilled workers. The skilled migration program has directly attracted over 1,500 workers to Canberra over the last five years. Many have brought with them skills that have been in high demand in the ACT’s growing ICT sector. Significantly though, these workers have also brought over $221 million of personal investment into the Canberra economy. In addition, over the last five years, the skilled migration program has assisted ACT employers to sponsor over 2,400 workers in a range of skilled occupations including the health, hospitality and academic sectors.
The government’s business migration program has sponsored 52 business migrants who have invested over $62 million into the ACT’s hospitality and property development sectors. Importantly, skilled migration adds to our cultural diversity, it builds links and networks globally, it injects capital into our economy, and it is an important driver of population growth and the property market.
All of these activities come together to showcase a different Canberra to the one that we see constantly portrayed in the media. The support we provide for NICTA, the
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