Economic Development Initiatives

As North Queensland’s Regional Economic Development Organisation, Townsville Enterprise, supported by the Queensland Government, undertakes a number of projects aimed at building local capabilities, increasing North Queensland’s ability to compete in the global arena and promoting the region as a viable investment opportunity.

The Economic Development Team is currently working on several projects. Feel free to get in touch should you have any further questions in regards to the projects.

Get Connected NQ

The project is designed to ensure that North Qld businesses have the opportunity to take full advantage of the NBN rollout. The advent of the NBN rollout will provide great opportunities for the businesses that it reaches, however it is obvious that not all of these businesses see all of the benefits that this technology will provide. This project is designed to provide these businesses with the most up-to-date information on how best they can gain these benefits and thus utilise it to become more profitable and internationally competitive which will lead to expansion and job creation.

Workforce Development Program

Working in partnership with Skills Qld, DEEWR, JCU, TAFE and Registered Training Organisations (RTO’s), this project will work with industry to develop and implement a workforce development security strategy to address the current and future workforce development needs for the North Queensland Region.

Workforce Development is a major issue for industry and government throughout Australia. In recent years factors such as a tight labour market, evolving technologies, shifts in demographics and globalisation have resulted in increasing difficulties in matching the skills of the labour market with industry demand. The North Queensland region in comparison to other regions in Australia has a history of strong economic performance, driven by growth in range of industry sectors such as Mining, Manufacturing, Government Services and Defence, Transport and Education. This strong economic performance has invariably led to strong demand for workforce development, and anecdotal reports from industry confirms that additional pressure has been placed on the ability of local businesses to source appropriately skilled workers.

With a number of additional major projects about to commence within close proximity to the region these workforce development impacts are expected to intensify.

Store-it NQ

In a growing technology dependant world, the need for access to large electronic databases is increasing at an exponential rate. Major IT companies such as Google and IBM are continuing to source new locations to establish data warehouses/server farms, placing significant importance on the use of renewable energy as the power source. Townsville is well placed to be considered as one of these locations, offering several competitive advantages for these companies including access to the NBN, affordable land, and access to possible renewable energy sources.

Working in conjunction with JCU and Ergon Energy, the objective of this project is to develop a compelling business case and associated investment material to attract a major IT company to establish a national data warehouse in the Townsville region.

In-Flight Ingham

The project concept centres on the need to identify the opportunities surrounding the Ingham Airport.The Hinchinbrook region has suffered one of its worst economic periods due to adverse weather conditions in known history. The Shire’s economic plan has highlighted several opportunities for recovery and they believe that their best prospect is the possibilities and land surrounding their current airport. TEL would like to undertake an opportunity study surrounding this airport precinct. General Aviation will play a big role in the regions’ growth with the growth of industries such as mining. GA companies can bring large numbers of highly skilled jobs to regions. We will be approaching Hinchinbrook Shire Council for a contribution towards this project. Targeted activities will include contacting GA companies moving out of larger airports, due to expansion and encourage the GA companies to consider regional airports. Disaster Management and improving the capacity for transferring aid and supplies to isolated areas is an additional opportunity that will be addressed within this project.

Distribution/Intermodal Transit Centre

The project is designed to investigate opportunities for the involvement of major transport and freight forwarding companies into the development of a freight distribution centre for North Queensland. This facility is seen as a high priority by Townsville City Council, the Townsville Port Authority and many other senior agencies across North Queensland. It will provide evidence on how this centre will interact with the overall transport planning occurring in the region. The project will enhance and complement the long term planning for rail and road infrastructure for the North Queensland region that will run concurrently with this project.

The North Queensland region is the conduit between a number of existing freight corridors within Northern Australia, providing a solid base for the movement of goods associated with Northern Australia’s agriculture, mining, manufacturing and tourism industries. With a growing population and booming economy the use of these freight corridors is becoming increasingly important.

The project will include an investigation into the logistics for land freight in the region, including fresh food and produce and manufactured items. The project will investigate best practice in intermodal freight centres and ensure that all of those best practice elements can be replicated within a centre in North Queensland. This will require an assessment on what activities are working successfully in other Australian intermodal facilities.

The need for such a facility has been highlighted in numerous reports and plans developed within the region including the NQ 2030 Economic Development Plan. This is an important project for our region and has universal support for many agencies.The project will include pulling together a project steering committee which will include Project Partners including Townsville Port Authority, Townsville City Council, Dept of Transport and Main Roads, Co-ordinator General (State Development Areas) branch in DEEDI, and Queensland Rail.