Orana’s skills shortage and a burgeoning Chinese tourism market are among key focus areas for Regional Development Australia (RDA) Orana in the coming financial year.
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The RDA board met in Mudgee on Friday to discuss measures to enhance economic development in the region.
“Agriculture and economics are two of the main drivers of the region so where could we add value in terms of raising awareness of the barriers to growth as well as access to skills and trained people and opportunities to diversify agriculture,” RDA Orana CEO Felicity Taylor-Edwards said.
With the Department of Environment meeting with the RDA later in the month, the board discussed it’s major Orana carbon project and the Federal Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund.
“That [project] has already bought $48 million into our region last year and so it’s obviously a really good diversification measure for agriculture but it goes beyond that because it’s across transport, commercial buildings, any changed practices where people can reduce their carbon footprint is now an income stream for them or at least an offset for expenses and investment,” Ms Taylor-Edwards said.
“We also discussed the focus we need to have around industry growth and what barriers to growth do industries have.
“We were particularly looking at the tourism industry.”
“The argument of course can be put that those positions can be taken up by Australians and of course the employer has to show they’ve tried and they can’t.”
Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb recently announced 100 million Chinese tourists visited an international destination in the last 12 months with that figure expected to double over the next two years.
“So how do we try and capture part of that market to boost the tourist economy and all the flow on downstream effect from that?” Ms Taylor-Edwards said.
Infrastructure, particularly aviation services in Mudgee and Cobar were other hot topics.
“We’re finding some of the key themes coming through are water – water efficiencies, deregulation, water infrastructure and then also transport and logistics, regional aviation and how we can approach that in a more regional sense,” Ms Taylor-Edwards said.
“Instead of Mudgee looking at Mudgee and Cobar looking at Cobar, the two prime examples of where aviation has really impacted your industries, how do we do that at a regional level that might actually have more impact at a government level or commercial level.”
In the skills and training area the RDA is in talks with the Korean Government and Korean Business Council to introduce undergraduate vocational trained graduates to fill skills gaps while gaining an accreditation through Tafe.
“They would come in on a training wage and actually buy Australian training through TAFE or other providers to work their way up and get Australian accreditation but at the same time help the business grow because they’ve got access to the skills,” she said.
Dubbo businesses will be conducting Skype interviews with candidates next week.
“Once we get the model right in Dubbo where we’ve got hands on support we’ll expand that across the region ... on the survey we did this time last year of all the businesses across the region they said that about 50 per cent of them, 500 businesses intended to grow in the next five years but their number one barrier was access to skilled people,” she said.
“The argument of course can be put that those positions can be taken up by Australians and of course the employer has to show they’ve tried and they can’t.”
