Brisbane Aims to Double City Economy Within 20 Years
Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk announced on Tuesday an ambitious 20-year plan that aims to double the city's economy to $217 billion by 2031. The growth, which includes boosting job creation, would ride on the back of the state's resources boom.
Mr Quirk said the city targets to create 343,000 more jobs in the next 10 years which it hopes would also attract more domestic migrants. With 177 resources companies headquartered in Brisbane, the mayor said the city could sell itself as a global hub for the resource industry technologies and services.
Among the mining firms with headquarters in Brisbane are Santos, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Peabody Energy, Xstrata, Vale and Bechtel. These resource industry companies collectively contribute $25 billion to the Greater Brisbane economy yearly.
Industries across Brisbane account for 46 per cent of Queensland's gross domestic product (GDP) and 9 per cent of national GDP.
"The global expansion of resources industries is bringing an unprecedented window of opportunity to Brisbane and we are on the cusp of a resource-based economic transformation," Mr Quirk said in a statement.
The mayor estimated that every direct job created in mining would create 19 more jobs in mining-related services that majority would be long-term high-value professional services. These jobs would include financial, legal, specialist consulting, research and recruitment services.
"It uses the resources boom as an injection into our economy and in doing so, develops a broader scale of economic opportunities that will sustain Brisbane into the future," Mr Quirk added.
The economic expansion, which would be faster than Hong Kong's and Singapore's, would also lead to an outward growth in Brisbane's core toward Milton, South Brisbane, Fortitude Valley and Bowen Hills.
To attract the construction of new five-star hotels to the city, the Brisbane City Council placed a moratorium on infrastructure charges. The council also launched in early 2012 an advertising campaign in other Australian capital cities to lure businesses into Brisbane.
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in Queensland. It is the third most populous city in Australia with a headcount of more than 2 million in its metropolitan area. Counting the South East Queensland urban area, the headcount exceeds 3 million.
Brisbane was named after the river on which it sits. The river was named after Scotsman Sir Thomas Brisbane who was the governor or New South Wales from 1821 to 1825.
It was ranked 16th most livable city in the word in 2009 by The Economist.