Michael Ferguson,Minister for State Growth
The Tasmanian Liberal Government is working strategically to drive greater investment in our economy.
Throughout 2019-20, the Office of the Coordinator-General continued its important work as the principal entity for attracting and supporting investment across our State.
The Office facilitated more than $673 million of investment across the state last financial year, and is working with a pipeline of approximately $3 billion of potential investment projects covering sectors like tourism, green hydrogen, agribusiness, food processing, the knowledge and digital economy and resources.
We know the best way to grow business confidence and create jobs is to grow the economy – we’ve done it before and we are doing it again now. According to the NAB October Monthly Business Survey, Tasmania maintains the strongest business conditions in the nation, in trend terms.
With business confidence remaining well above the national average and Tasmania remaining one of only two jurisdictions in positive territory, it is no wonder investors see our State as an attractive proposition.
The latest ABS statistics, released last week, showed Tasmania’s economy grew 0.3 per cent in 2019-20, which was the second highest economic growth of any state. We were one of just two states to see growth in the 2019-20 financial year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Demonstrating the resilience in our economy, Tasmania’s Gross State Product grew to $32.1 billion in 2019-20 and outperformed the national economy which fell 0.3 per cent.
These figures all show we remain in a strong position for recovery and looking forward, one of the most significant policies any government can deliver is attracting new investment, which means new business, new money and new jobs.
Our landmark $5 billion infrastructure program will support around 25,000 jobs, bolster confidence and invest in our community.
It is clear our supportive investment policy is seeing business confidence in Tasmania consistently above the national average and developers continuing to look to Tasmania to develop major projects.
While Labor only seems to be able to produce a shopping list of projects we’ve already funded and are delivering instead of an Alternative Budget, at the same time opposing local job creation opportunities through major projects, we’ll get on with the job of delivering for Tasmanians, with a record investment into the state to boost the economy and grow jobs.
