Page 3042 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 16 September 2015
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The success of the network since it launched, the 161 per cent increase in members of the entry 29 co-working space, the doubling in the number of GRIFFIN accelerator participants, the programs that have been run for young entrepreneurs, Indigenous businesses and ex-public servants and the launch of the KILN incubator in July—to name just a few—give us the confidence to believe that the network will make a significant difference to the growth of new companies in Canberra. Given our position as the highest performing state or territory on both innovation and entrepreneurship, the opportunity to develop an even stronger innovation ecosystem is the key to creating wealth and jobs.
The third part of the strategy is to support business investment in future growth areas. There are great opportunities opening up in a range of industries here in Canberra. One of these is the renewable energy industry. Earlier this year we released our renewable energy industry development strategy to build on our commitment of sourcing 90 per cent of our energy needs from renewable sources by 2020. We have now committed to increasing this to 100 per cent by 2025. Focusing on solar, wind and energy storage, the strategy brings together a range of existing government renewable energy initiatives and facilitates the next generation of renewable energy technologies, including the creation of a renewable energy precinct and test berth facilities.
The strategy also provides $1.2 million for a renewable energy innovation fund to provide competitive, project-specific grants or small-scale contracts to emerging ACT-based renewable energy businesses. I believe that the strategy provides us with a strong foundation for the future growth and diversification of Canberra’s economy.
I am proud to note that CIT Bruce, in my electorate of Ginninderra, Madam Speaker, is poised to be a major maintenance training facility for renewable energy industries. I talked a bit about that yesterday as a result of a visit to Taiwan and the opportunities that could come from further relationships there. I also look forward to working in partnership with the business community and the research and higher education sector to achieve our goals here in Canberra.
The ACT government has committed $11.75 million in new funding over the next two years to deliver confident & business ready. This covers innovation, trade and investment activities, which have new funding of $6 million over two years. This includes $4 million in new funding for the CBR innovation development fund and $2 million in new funding for the CBR trade and investment facilitation fund. Brand Canberra phase 2 has $1.4 million over two years. The cooperative airline stimulus fund has $1.6 million over two years. The cooperative marketing fund receives $0.5 million over two years. Floriade 2015 receives $255,000, and the special event fund gets $2 million over two years.
The CBR innovation development fund will support a range of activities, including the CBR Innovation Network, the ICON grants program, ScreenACT, the ACT film investment fund and NICTA—until the end of June 2016. In addition, the fund has $700,000 in 2015-16 and $1.45 million in 2016-17 available for allocation on a competitive basis for projects and activities that contribute to the development of the innovation ecosystem. The CBR trade and investment facilitation fund supports the government’s trade agenda, as well as the activities of Invest Canberra.
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