Business Lands Strategic Plan - Coffs Harbour City Council - NSW ...

Coffs Harbour Local Growth Management Strategy
2 STUDY CONTEXT
2.1 Wider Economic Trends and Drivers
Globalisation
Globalisation has been marked by a rapid increase in global trade in goods and services and in
particular capital flows. This has been facilitated by technological innovation in transport and
communications, the promotion of deregulation in particular industry sectors, the removal of trade
restrictions and exchange controls and innovation in the management and pricing of transaction risks
(insurance, hedging, partnership formation etc).
Globalisation is likely to continue to drive a separation between the ‘thinking’ sector of the value chain
(design, brokerage, marketing, strategy formulation) and the ‘making’ (manufacturing) and
‘distribution’ (transport, logistics, after sales service) aspects. Key services within the thinking part of
the value adding process are showing increasing tendencies to centralise within one or two centres in
advanced countries.
More countries are opening up their economies and seizing the opportunities that come from closer
integration into the global economy. China and India, as well as other countries such as Russia, Brazil
and Mexico, are growing rapidly.
Further, as communication and technology continue to improve, global production networks are
becoming increasingly flexible, specialised and dispersed across continents. In an era where resources,
technology and ideas can be moved rapidly to the most productive location, no economy can rely on
its past strengths or traditional expertise.
These trends have significant implications for the developed world. Under the globalisation paradigm,
the current and future economic context is one of increased global competition, albeit also one of
increasing interdependence of national and urban economies. For Australia the specific implications
include:
• Increased competition in lower order tertiary sectors of the economy; and
• Opportunities for increased trade (namely in resources, advanced manufacturing and sophisticated
services)
The burgeoning middle classes in developing countries like China and India are providing new markets
for very high quality manufactured goods from the developed world.
Cities
In the absence of trade barriers, the underlying characteristics and resources of nations have come to
determine the activities in which they specialise. In general, more labour-intensive, lower-technology
production is taking place in countries with an abundance of low-cost labour, whilst advanced
economies with higher labour costs, and more developed skills and physical capital, concentrate on
the production of high-value, knowledge-based goods and services. Importantly, these knowledge
driven sectors rely on productivity and innovation for their competitive advantage.
Business Lands Strategy – Page 13