Page 3239 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 17 September 2013
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ANU, the CSIRO and the University of Canberra not only drives research, innovation and business growth but also raises the profile of our city as a study destination for a new generation of students from both within Australia and overseas.
Through brand Canberra and in cooperation with industry and community groups, we are creating a fully integrated city brand that provides a consistent, cohesive and creative approach to marketing the ACT both nationally and internationally as a great place to visit, live, invest and study.
Through InvestACT, we will focus on promoting Canberra as an investment destination for Australian and international companies that fit with the territory’s competitive advantages. We will profile the business success stories that we have seen emerge in the last few years. And I am pleased to have the opportunity to do so this morning.
Through the exporters’ network and the trade mission program, we will continue to showcase ACT companies on the world stage. Through the skilled migration program, we will continue to deliver the skills the business community requires to innovate, to grow, to expand, as well as bring in the investment that our community needs, and to continue to drive population growth in Canberra. We will continue, through our taxation policies and commitment to reducing red tape, to support the innovation ecosystem in the ACT.
When I launched this strategy just over 12 months ago I undertook to report to the Assembly annually. The following figures indicate how successful these policies have been: the total number of actively trading ACT businesses has grown by 1.6 per cent, on the latest available data. And this is the highest of all states and territories and four times the national growth of 0.4 per cent.
Retail turnover grew by 3.3 per cent in the ACT in the year to July 2013, compared to 2.3 per cent nationally over the same period. In the year to August 2013, the ACT labour force grew by 1,600, whilst unemployment fell to 3.7 per cent, compared to a national unemployment rate of 5.8 per cent.
Over the last five years we have seen 13,200 new jobs and over the last 10 years 35,900 new jobs. Population growth, at 2.3 per cent per annum, remains above average for the ACT and well above the national rate. Over the last five years, service exports in the ACT have grown by an average of 6.9 per cent per annum, compared to national growth in service exports of only 0.8 per cent per annum over the same period. In 2011-12, the ACT’s exports were worth $1.27 billion, of which $1.26 billion was in service exports. State final demand, consumer price inflation and wage price inflation are all on par with national averages.
There is one business statistic that I often see quoted that I would like to address this morning, and this relates to the survival rate for small businesses in the territory. It is true that the survival rate is marginally lower than the national average, but the business start-up rate, at an average of 3.9 per cent per annum over the last 10 years, is higher than the national rate. In a services economy such as the ACT, where there are very few barriers to transitioning from running a small business to moving into
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