Blacktown's bold bid to be a smarter city
A BOLD plan exists to change perceptions, encourage investment, attract higher-order jobs and create a regional city – that’s the ambitious aim of Blacktown City Council
While traditional industries are the backbone of the local economy – representing 35.1 per cent (2011) of the city’s gross regional product (GRP) – Blacktown is exploring niche industry markets to broaden the city’s economic base and create a “smarter city”.
The exploration of niche markets to facilitiate and transform the city was important former Blacktown mayor, Alan Pendleton, told 150 business people at the Western Sydney- The Growth Agenda function.
The event was a partnership between the Property Council of Australia (NSW) and Western Sydney Business Connection, held at the WatervieW Conference Centre. in Bicentennial Park.
Clr Pendleton said the opening by Hewlett Packard of the $200 million Aurora regional cloud computing data centre,in Eastern Creek, was a “tremendous coup” for Blacktown.
Clr Pendleton, who is also chairman of the Parramatta-based Regional Development Australia-Sydney, said a realistic opportunity existed to grow an ICT sector in Western Sydney and that Blacktown is well placed to support such a culster.
He said Blacktown City Council was committed to growing the Western Sydney economic base and believed that Blacktown’s role was critical and could be substaintial.
He said the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in Blacktown had grown to $139 million, an increase of 4.0 per cent in 12 months.
To capitalise on a range of opportunities and attract investment, Clr Pendleton said council had adopted stage one of the Blacktown City Centre framework, which had been submitted to the Department of Planning and Infrastructure
“Our plan is deliberately bold,” he said.
He said council sought to create a corridor toalling 17 hectares of land for future commercial office space, with office blocks up to 18 storeys high, within a traditional CBD setting to attract higher-order jobs and help to close the employment gap which existed in the region.
“The next phases of the Blacktiown City Centre planning fraamework involve the creation of a business park and more intense use of the medical and health precinct that surrounds Blacktown Hospital.”
He said completed and current works to improve the amenity of the city included the stage one redevelopment of the Blacktown Showground, reprsenting a $15 million investment by council
Another initiative, has been the creation of a Village Green, which represented a $5 million investment in Blacktown emerging as a regional city.
He said when fully implemented the plan could provide an estimated employment capacity for up to 40,000 new when the current planned growth for the centre was 5000 jobs.
He said major corporations in the city included Arnott’s, De Bortoli Australia, #m Purification, Cadbury-Schweppes, One Steel, Sharp and LG, which contrinuted to Blacktown’s GRP of $10.7 billion annually – up by 38 per cent in the past five years – contributing, in turn,12.6 per cent of Western Sydney’s $85 billion GRP..
Clr Pendleton said with the state of the NSW economy it was beholden on Western Sydney councils to “forge a new paradigm”.
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