EDA Journal Vol 15 No 1 | Page 28

The REIS focuses the TSRA ’ s programme of business assistance on the promotion and delivery of a strategically targeted mix of financial and in-kind assistance designed to identify and develop commercially-viable businesses . To be eligible for REIS assistance from the TSRA , applicants need to provide evidence of their own investment or commitment to invest financially in the business proposal and the means for financing their investment ( e . g . savings , commercial loan , other forms of borrowing , etc .). This is a critical point of difference between the REIS and the TSRA ’ s previous approaches to providing business assistance using a grants-based approach .
The Cultural Arts and Creative Industries Business Growth Package is specifically designed to support businesses that rely on ‘ creativity ’ as their primary source of value . This includes those seeking to build a business based on traditional arts and culture as well as those looking to develop other ‘ creative ’ businesses or business ideas in any of the six Arts and Creative Industries segments ...
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS Growing a pipeline of emerging Indigenous business operators and potential TSRA customers is constrained by a range of regional challenges referred to above . The TSRA ’ s historical learnings and experience of business failures significantly informed the preparation of the REIS and the shaping of the Economic Development Programme ’ s processes and service delivery . In developing the REIS and the Business Growth Package , the TSRA recognised a need to place greater emphasis on assessment and pre-loan support around business knowledge , acumen and implementation .
In recent years the Economic Development Programme has increased its focus on supporting aspiring entrepreneurs to better understand the capability and business acumen needed for successful and sustainable business ownership , in addition to the skills required to be successful in business . As a result , a number of individuals chose not to pursue business immediately and were instead supported in building their basic business capabilities first .
To maintain its focus on a strategic , informed and targeted approach to business assistance , the TSRA ’ s Economic Development Programme team administers the Business Growth Package on the basis of three fundamentals , being :
1 . The quality of the enterprise and / or business proposal ( good prospects for commercial viability );
2 . The quality of the business proponent ( that is , the owning / controlling / managing entity must demonstrate a propensity to be capable of realising the commerciality of the enterprise ); and
3 . Alignment of the business proposition with the Torres Strait Region ’ s strategic comparative and competitive advantages and opportunities for industry / economic development .
These fundamentals underpin the delivery of the BGP as well as all other products and services delivered through the TSRA ’ s Economic Development Programme .
Consistent with the aims of the Economic Development Programme , the implementation of the REIS has proactively addressed identified challenges and targeted opportunities for the sustainable economic development of the Torres Strait Region . Specifically , the REIS has worked to facilitate a number of commercially-viable business opportunities in the region and successfully guided the Economic Development Programme in the delivery of a range of services and products designed to meet its Programme aims .
Through the Business Growth Package , the TSRA has had a number of successes assisting both creative and other businesses grow into commerciallyviable operations . Experience in the Torres Strait has shown that , in designing business support programs to encourage Indigenous economic development , the emphasis should be on ‘ for-profit ’ commercial business opportunities in the creative industries - both cultural production and creative services ( as well as in other focal industries ) - which can help deliver real economic development outcomes in the form of business development , employment generation and local wealth creation .
REFERENCES
Australian Government , Institute of Health and Welfare , Australian Institute of Family Studies ( 2014 ), Success Factors for Indigenous entrepreneurs and community-based enterprises
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research , ANU ( 2014 ), Indigenous employment and businesses : Whose business is it to employ indigenous workers ?
Charles Sturt University and University of Technology Sydney ( 2014 ), Determining the factors influencing the success of private and communityowned indigenous businesses across remote , regional and urban Australia
Higgs , P . and Lennon , S . ( 2014 ), Australia ’ s Creative Employment - An Analysis , Queensland University of Technology
Morley S . ( 2014 ), Success factors for Indigenous entrepreneurs and community-based enterprises , Resource Sheet no . 30 , produced for the Closing the Gap Clearinghouse . Canberra : Australian Institute of Health and Welfare & Melbourne : Australian Institute of Family Studies
PWC ( 2018 ), The contribution of the Indigenous business sector to Australia ’ s economy
SC Lennon & Associates ( September 2015 ), Torres Strait Regional Economic Investment Strategy , 2015-2018 , prepared on behalf of the Torres Strait Regional Authority
SC Lennon & Associates and Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries & Innovation ( 2013 ), Creative Industries Statistical Analysis for Western Australia , prepared on behalf of the Government of Western Australia , Department of Culture and The Arts
Torres Strait Regional Authority ( 2014 ), Torres Strait Development Plan 2014 – 2018
https :// iba . gov . au / 2016 / 10 / results-show-growthchallenge-and-change-for-indigenous-businessaustralia /, viewed 2 March 2022
https :// www . abs . gov . au / websitedbs / D3310114 . nsf / Home / 2016 % 20QuickStats , viewed 2 March 2022
https :// www . tsra . gov . au / the-tsra / programmes / economic-development / regional-economicinvestment-strategy , viewed 1 March 2022
https :// www . tsra . gov . au / the-torres-strait / regionalmap , viewed 2 March 2022
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
www . sashalennon . com . au .
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