Cities lobby together
Regional trio join forces for funding
THE need for Geelong, Newcastle and Wollongong to develop quality supply chain infrastructure and the potential for the cities to collaborate to attract investment were highlighted in a Gateway Cities forum last week.
The first of three webinars focusing on key policy framework areas for the Gateway Cities Alliance, the forum heard that improving the efficiency and productivity of the logistics framework in Australia was a key to developing exports of knowledge-based goods.
Leading Australian industry policy expert, Professor Roy Green, said development of supply chain infrastructure needed to be focused on exports of knowledge-based goods as well as imports.
“The problem here is that we sustain our First World lifestyle with a Third World industrial structure,” Prof Green said.
“That industrial structure has to change, and along with it we must improve and change and transform our supply chain and logistics infrastructure with it.”
The chair of the Port of Newcastle, Prof Green said supply chains needed to be digitised, and use artificial intelligence, to help Australian exporters to be globally competitive.
“It’s perhaps not widely known but 50 per cent of the containers that we export are empty,” he said.
“That is a reflection of the nature of our economy.”
The Gateway Cities Alliance was formed last year with an aim of advocating for government policy developments that recognise the potential of Geelong, Newcastle and Wollongong to contribute to the national economy.
COVID-19 and the work-fromhome trend has further underlined the potential of regions to contribute to Australia’s economic recovery.
While noting that the cities were pursuing similar strategies for their future, Prof Green said there was great scope for co-operation in skills development, research and technology and joint operations within global value chains where appropriate between companies in those regions.
He said a key factor in successful clustering to achieve global competitive advantage was the quality of foreign direct investment.
“The big issue for the regions is that capital cities, which inevitably influence the state governments, draw knowledge-based foreign direct investment into those city areas,” Prof Green said.
He said, whether it was medtech, consumer electronic, or aerospace, these were investments that were generally directed towards the capitals with little attention paid to regions as potentially a better prospect in conjunction with local SME.
“This is where the regions can get together to indicate the opportunities that are available in all of our regions as opposed to simply concentrating those investments in (capital) cities and adding to congestion and flying in the face what we are seeing with COVID,” Prof Green said.
“That is the opportunity to move to regions and do what we do in cities and do it much better and efficiently outside them, through remote working as well as through the development of local infrastructure.”
Committee for Geelong chief executive Jennifer Cromarty, who is the secretariat for the Gateway Cities Alliance, said the webinar showed there was an appetite for the cities to share information and to realise the value of their ports and airports.
“There is also a unique opportunity to collaborate and talk to the federal government on the role these great cities play in the national economy,” Ms Cromarty said.
She said Geelong, Newcastle and Wollongong needed to be supported by appropriate infrastructure that reflected their status as major cities, not just smaller regional hubs.
The three webinars are being supported by the universities based in each city and are focused on key mutual policy areas.
The next webinar is on ”Population Post-COVID” and the third is on ”The Future of Work — Who, How and Where”.
Last week’s seminar was hosted by City of Greater Geelong CEO Martin Cutter.