A $99.4 million investment by the Victorian Government will drive economic growth across regional Victoria by attracting new jobs and population growth, major new investment and build up industries with a competitive advantage.
The Premier John Brumby said that under the $631 million Ready for Tomorrow: A Blueprint for Regional and Rural Victoria, the Victorian Government would deliver action and investment to create new opportunities and a prosperous future for families in rural and regional Victoria.
“Ready for Tomorrow is a $631 million strategic investment by our Government to drive a new era of opportunity and prosperity in regional Victoria,” Mr Brumby said.
“In the past decade, our partnership with regional Victoria has produced remarkable results: more than 120,000 new jobs created, population growth to 1.45 million and our regions are contributing $62.6 billion towards the state’s economy, up a massive 30 per cent since 1999.
“Our regions have developed a competitive advantage in agriculture production, food and beverage, tourism, green energy and increasingly information and community technology and we want to work with industry to build on their strengths to boost that competitive advantage.
“This $99.4 million package will drive the next stage of industry expansion and job creation. It will attract new companies to establish in regional Victoria, it will back our regional communities to be leaders in new job creation, new industry development, new exports and new ideas.”
The Ready for Tomorrow $99.4 million jobs and investment package includes:
- $28 million for a new program, Industries for Today and Tomorrow, that will deliver assistance to businesses seeking to expand their existing regional operations or establish a presence in a regional location and create new jobs in regional Victoria. It will provide strategic advice and support to drive regional business growth, investment, exports and skills development;
- $35 million to support regional tourism including $25 million from the Regional Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) dedicated to building new tourism infrastructure and developing key regional areas as world-class tourist destinations and $10 million to help regions grow their tourism offering through establishment of regional tourism boards and new regional marketing campaigns;
- $25 million in targeted infrastructure support through RIDF to deliver industry infrastructure to help attract new investment in regional Victoria and to grow the operations of existing regional businesses by supporting infrastructure development that improves productivity in the areas of energy use, water efficiency, improved telecommunications, industrial estates and more efficient transport connections, creating more jobs in local communities;
- $4.8 million to strengthen innovation and productivity through industry clusters which strengthen supply-chain management skills, targeting the areas of aviation, biotechnology, food and farming, information and communication technology and education;
- $4.6 million towards expanding the Industry Capability Network to support businesses in regional Victoria in matching local businesses with government agencies and major contractors seeking goods and services for large projects to ensure that local firms with the required expertise and capability area not overlooked in favour of overseas firms; and
- $2 million to Regional Development Australia (RDA) to pursue economic development priorities including through research and planning projects around specific economic development issues such as environmental adaptation.
Regional and Rural Development Minister Jacinta Allan said the $99.4 million package would take the Victorian Government’s record investment in job creating to the next level.
“Last year alone, regional Victoria accounted for one third of all jobs created in regional Australia,” she said.
“This package is about positioning our regions to be at the fore of new job creation and supporting existing industry to build on its strengths leading to more new jobs in local communities.
“In addition we are expanding our Regional Infrastructure Development Fund with a major $260 million investment and projects built with support of this fund are responsible for creating 4,000 jobs in regional Victoria each year.”