Catalyst projects to drive local economy and jobs

The Illawarra Business Chamber has released a policy paper outlining the key projects it believes can boost jobs growth and attract new businesses to the Illawarra.

The paper includes projects such as:
* Maldon-Dombarton
* F6 extension
* Picton Rd
* Princes Highway
* National Broadband Network
* Port Kembla Outer Harbour re-development
* Co-generation plant at BlueScope
* Wollongong City Action Plan
* Wollongong Convention Centre

Our paper is about moving beyond wish-lists and nagging the local MPs.

We know that projects must stack-up from a cost-benefit point of view before we can hope to attract private or public funds for them.

That is why our paper measures the projects against some key criteria and identifies the additional work the RDA and regional stakeholders need to undertake to convert these projects to a genuine pipeline ready for funding when it becomes available.

The IBC evaluated each project against its ability to create jobs, act as enabling infrastructure for other projects and has partnering organisations to take the project forward.

We have also included a project management timeline for each project that shows the community how progressed each project is which we intend to keep up to date on our website.

This paper is the starting point for pushing projects forward and we encourage other community groups to publish their priorities so that the RDA can filter and evaluate projects to create a genuine, well-researched pipeline of projects covering a variety of needs that the whole region can get behind.

For copies of the IBC's policy paper click here