Economic development
The underlying target of economic development is jobs growth.
It is necessary to expand the city’s and region’s economic pie in order to grow more jobs and offer a wider choice of employment options.
In Newcastle, expanding the economic pie requires strategies targeting four fronts:
- Sustaining local business, jobs and reinvestment
- Growing local business, jobs and opportunities
- Attracting external businesses and investment
- Matching external investment with local investment.
What are Newcastle’s key economic development challenges?
Newcastle is consciously reinventing itself by moving away from its industrial heritage. Key economic development challenges include the need to:
- Grow and develop a sustainable economy - to build new economic drivers and grow new sectors of the economy to reduce dependence upon a few traditional sectors
- Replace lost employment opportunities - to grow opportunities in the tertiary sector which has the greatest capacity to absorb the city’s workforce, support locally based economic enterprises and contribute to household income
- Ensure that the region is still able to earn external revenue - to maintain viable primary and secondary sectors, which respectively account for half of the revenue brought into the region from overseas exports and exports to the rest of Australia
- Contribute productively to the modern economy - to skill and equip the workforce appropriately. New economic activity must be environmentally sustainable.
Council’s Economic Development Strategy
The Economic Development Strategy sets out Council's approach towards building Newcastle's economy in a sustainable manner.
Download the Economic Development Strategy (469kb pdf)
The strategy is four pronged:
- Focusing Council’s processes and assets - to support the growth of the city and regional economy by delivering customer-oriented, outcome-driven works and services
- Collaborating with other stakeholders - to deliver outcomes beyond the individual capability and resources of local institutions by forging partnerships at a regional and state level
- Supporting targeted business sectors - to build and strengthen clusters by providing appropriate planning, facilitation and support
- Developing social capital and a high quality of life - to facilitate and support communities by providing leadership, planning and governance support.
National and global trends
The strategy understands the influence national and global trends have on the Newcastle’s economy. The strategy is based on a platform of the city’s significant strengths, which include:
- World class deep water port facilities;
- Excellent road, rail and air links to domestic and international markets
- Comprehensive range of community support services including education, training, research and innovation institutions
- Leading expertise in the field of innovative and "smart" technologies
- A trained and flexible workforce with a 24 hour shift routine, and a work culture, which accepts and supports change
- A community that proudly identifies as being Novocastrian and is supportive of initiatives that will strengthen it
- Excellent quality of life, living environment, natural environment and preserved heritage.
Further information
For further information you can contact our Economic Development and Tourism Manager at mail@ncc.nsw.gov.au.
