TSBE works to promote health services in region

ECONOMIC development – I must admit when I first started my working career I heard the term used but didn’t quite know what it actually meant.

I am the first to admit I was not a rocket scientist – most of The Chronicle readers I am sure will know exactly what economic development means.

You might remember that the Toowoomba Regional Council funds us at TSBE to the tune of $450,000 – a not insubstantial sum.

They have asked us to undertake some of their economic development activities for them.

We use their investment, and combine that with our membership to provide an even bigger bang for buck.

When someone joins TSBE, they do so knowing that some of their membership dollars are going to the greater good – to support the growth and promotion of Toowoomba.

Last year for example, the council funding equated to about 13 per cent of our total revenue. We have a whole range of agreements and key performance indicators to ensure we do what we say we are going to.

But what is economic development and what do we do? In its simplest sense – it is bringing money and investment into a community.

Last year we helped bring 11 business to the region, and more than 60 since 2012.

We have now created a co-working space “The Branch” which allows business from outside the region to dip their toe in the water without having the enormous set-up costs of a new office.

We now have seven businesses using this service.

We promote the region far and wide and last financial year our media releases went to an audience of more than 3.5 million people.

This audience came from our 700 plus news items, 155 media articles and 60 television interviews.

Our website now receives 10,000 visits per month. Our AccessChina delegation, of which we are enormously proud, received well over $1 million in media exposure for the region.

Our events had more than 3600 attendees and we track where they come from.

Of those visitors, 80 per cent are key decision makers, and they spent nearly $350,000 just in accommodation and meals.

We continue to advocate for the region, and spend countless days and hours in the offices of politicians in both Brisbane and Canberra.

This has clearly paid off with there now being more than $13 billion worth of projects in our pipeline.

I challenge you to name another region that has the amount of infrastructure being developed as we do.

For our membership, we focus on linking business with opportunity.

We want them to be first to know about new projects to town, we facilitate introductions and we make sure that big projects use local contractors as much as possible.

I am proud to say that we are now about to embark on a new area of focus as well – that being health.

Hot on the heels of the health leaders of Toowoomba’s public and private hospitals signing an MOU, all have agreed to work with TSBE to promote health services; to stop people going to Brisbane for treatment when they can be looked after in state-of-the-art facilities in Toowoomba, to encourage new specialists to the region and to promote wellness programs.