New investment and R&D arm to accelerate NSW economy and jobs
The NSW Government will aggressively target international and local businesses through a new body, Investment NSW, designed to attract billions of dollars into the state and drive the economy to recovery. It will also incorporate a new section, R&D NSW, following the launch of the NSW R&D Action Plan in January to boost the future pipeline of ideas and companies. This will allow the government to work strategically and in a coordinated way on attracting investment to the state and in creating new jobs.
Investment NSW aims to take advantage of NSW’s successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the State’s position as a safe place to do business. It reflects the government’s central focus on jobs, skills and investment, which forms part of the NSW Government’s COVID-19 Recovery Plan.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said as the State moves toward the next stage of the COVID-19 recovery, Investment NSW presents a timely opportunity for businesses both internationally and domestically.
“Our economy now presents a great opportunity for investors as we continue to rebound from this pandemic,” Ms Berejiklian said. “Investment NSW will be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for the private sector. The new initiative will become an important arm for the NSW economy, focusing on growing both jobs and investment in the state,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Investment NSW will partner with key areas of the NSW Government to ensure the best possible investment outcomes for NSW.
In an interview with online publication InnovationAus, Gabrielle Upton MP, Parliamentary Secretary to Premier Berejklian, explained that the NSW government is retooling for new levels of public investment into ‘soft’ infrastructure, with a heavy emphasis on building the state’s research translation capability.
Ms Upton led the taskforce investigating pathways to boosting R&D translation in NSW as a collaboration with the state’s Chief Scientist and Engineer Hugh Durrant-White. The resulting NSW Accelerating Research and Development Action Plan was released earlier this year. This is a signpost for a new emphasis on future industries, and future job creation opportunities. It includes as core recommendations structural changes inside government that would oversee the research translation outcomes, including the vreation of R&D NSW.
The agency would operate in similar fashion to Infrastructure NSW, with a whole-of-government line of sight over major R&D investments across different clusters and agencies.