ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY
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LATROBE CITY COUNCIL“ Latrobe City Council Engineers Australia Partnership”
Latrobe City Council has partnered with Engineers Australia to promote the region as the Engineering Capital of Australia. The partnership demonstrates how a regional city located in Gippsland, can collaborate with a national peak professional body to create real economic diversification opportunities in a transitioning community.
The partnership was identified as a key action in Council’ s Economic Development Strategy 2016- 2020. It is very relevant due to the region’ s strength in engineering, Council’ s aim to become the Engineering Capital of Australia, and both parties sharing a vision of advancing the engineering field.
Council’ s Economic Development Strategy was developed within the context of a transitioning economy. The Engineering Capital of Australia concept evolved through the strategy development and is an innovative approach to economic development.
A key aspect of bringing this concept to life is strong relationships between the community, government, the education sector, industry and sector experts to forge a shared vision for the future. The partnership with Engineers Australia was identified as crucial by leveraging the professional body’ s existing relationships and reputation within the sector to create positive change. Change is difficult and requires innovation, commitment and passion and Council believes it can inspire confidence and change in its community through this partnership approach.
The partnership to date is strong with real outcomes starting to come to fruition. It is delivering direct and in-direct benefits which are all contributing to creating an economy which is sustainable and diverse with a focus on engineering excellence.
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SUNSHINE COAST COUNCIL“ Agribusiness Network & Sunshine Coast Agribusiness Industry Investment Plan”
A key deliverable under the Sunshine Coast Regional Economic Development Strategy 2013-2033( REDs) was the establishment of the Food and Agribusiness Network( FAN)‘ an organisation led by the industry, for the industry.’
The initiative was identified by the Sunshine Coast Agribusiness Industry Taskforce, a key advisory body established by Council to deliver an Industry Investment Plan which responded to key issues and opportunities identified as a result of a review of 29 research papers and an extensive industry consultation exercise.
FAN was established two years ago with seed funding and in-kind support from Sunshine Coast Council and a handful of initial industry sponsors. It has since grown to over 150 industry members and 43 sponsors with a constant stream of collaborative projects and industry led events under its belt. FAN is now known as Australia’ s fastest growing not for profit food industry network and the go-to across the industry supply chain and a range of affiliate members who see value in being engaged.
FAN has become the key conduit for Council to deliver on a range of industry development and regional marketing activities, to promote the innovation and provenance of the region locally and globally and to build the capacity of the industry. In effect, FAN has become the leadership body with which to deliver projects across the five pathways of the REDs whilst developing its own array of strategic industry partnerships.
FAN has now become a key element of the Sunshine Coast’ s investment attraction value proposition.
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ONKAPARINGA CITY COUNCIL“ ON Business Partner Program”
Economic development has featured as core business and a key goal of the City of Onkaparinga since it was established in 1998 as the largest council in South Australia, through an amalgamation of three peri-urban councils. In that time, relying on traditional economic development interventions alone has not yielded sufficient economic growth and investment, so the council is now pushing boundaries( and the limits of the Local Government
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