Page 397 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 2019
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MR BARR: Last year our economy grew by four per cent, which was the fastest growth rate of any state or territory in Australia. It builds on nation-leading growth in recent years, bringing the real economic growth for the territory over the three years to June 2018 to 12 per cent. Over the same period, real gross state product per capita has also grown, rising 5.6 per cent to $94,831.
This demonstrates that, as our population grows and our economy grows, we are becoming materially better off. This growing prosperity is an important part of the government’s economic growth and diversification agenda. This year, the ACT is projected to continue to grow significantly above the national rate, with economic growth at 3.5 per cent and jobs growth around two per cent.
At a time when much of the national and international economic commentary is focused on emerging risks and uncertainties, it is important that we keep an eye on what happens nationally and internationally. But it is also important that we recognise the good position that the ACT is in because of our increasingly diverse, services-driven economy, the strength of our economic growth outlook for the year ahead and the opportunities that this will create for Canberrans to find a good job and to get a pay rise in 2019.
MR PETTERSSON: Chief Minister, which sectors have seen particularly strong growth in recent times and are projected to contribute strongly to the ACT’s growth and job creation going forward?
MR BARR: On a per capita basis the ACT is now Australia’s leader in service exports. We are home to around 1.7 per cent of Australia’s population but we are now exporting 2.5 per cent of Australia’s service exports. Over the last decade service exports from Canberra have grown by more than 150 per cent, as we have been engaged in a very active promotion of what our city has to offer international markets.
This growth has been particularly strong in two sectors: education and tourism. International education is Canberra’s largest export and generated $977 million for our economy in 2017-18, which is an increase of more than 100 per cent over the past five years. This is leading to the creation of many more high-wage jobs in our city and around one in 10 Canberrans are employed in the education sector.
Our tourism sector is currently the second fastest growing in Australia, after our friends in Tasmania, and we are experiencing an all-time record level of both domestic and international visitors to our city. Some time ago we set the target of achieving $2.5 billion in overnight visitor expenditure in the ACT by 2020 and total annual overnight visitor spending is now at $2.37 billion. So we are on track to achieve this goal.
The ACT government has supported and championed the growth of these service export sectors, along with the broader service sector more generally, because we know that a more diverse economy is a more resilient one and one that will continue to create more good jobs for Canberrans.
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