In other words , economic development is about building the economic capacity of a place , through deliberate actions , to deliver improved outcomes for its entire community . Sustainable economic development then takes this a step further with a focus on intergenerational equity , resilience , and achieving a balance between economic , social , and environmental outcomes .
Increasingly guided by principles of equity and sustainability , the range of activities that now fall under the broad umbrella of economic development further reflect its evolution from something that happens , through economic growth and wealth creation , to something that is an intervention in pursuit of a desired end state . The activities typically relate to one of the following functions :
1 . Community development – facilitating safe places to live , work and play , through stakeholder and community engagement .
2 . Workforce capacity development – training initiatives , workforce attraction and recruitment and connecting industry with schools and further and higher education .
3 . Housing development – creating a well-functioning residential housing
market where supply meets demand and where housing is affordable and accessible .
4 . Commercial and industrial real estate development – creating a wellfunctioning commercial and industrial real estate market which supports existing and new businesses to locate / relocate .
5 . Capital development – including infrastructure planning and delivery and asset utilisation to support investment from businesses and other organisations that allow them to provide new or additional goods or services .
However , the findings from our survey indicate that ( noting that a majority of the respondents were from the local government sector ), in the Australian context , not all of these functions are being widely undertaken as ‘ economic development ’ by nominated economic development officers . This is especially the case when it comes to the categories of housing development , commercial and industrial real estate development , and capital development .
When asked about the economic development activities they undertake , and how often they undertake them , 17 % of respondents were always or often involved in housing planning and development , 25 % were always or often involved in tasks relating to commercial real estate development , and 28 % were always or often involved in land use planning and redevelopment . This compares with 84 % who were always or often supporting small to medium local and regional businesses , 74 % who were always or often involved in policy / strategy development and 70 % who were always or often involved in business attraction – activities that align most closely with the domain of community development and stakeholder engagement .
Given the evolution of economic development globally into a broad range of activities and functions , these survey findings suggest that the Australian economic development sector is similar .
When asked what measures or indicators their organisation used to evaluate the impact of its economic development activities , 36 % always or often used sustainability indicators as a measure of success . Thirty-five percent of respondents always or often relied upon equitable growth indicators when evaluating the impact of economic development activities . These figures compare with 77 % of survey respondents who always or often use employment indicators ( such as job creation and a reduction in unemployment rates ) and 67 % who always or often use productivity indicators ( like gross regional product ).
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT JOURNAL VOL 17 NO 1 2024 05