Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

Business SupportThrough the course of the Review, there was a consistent display of goodwill from members ofthe business community, including the property sector, and an expressed desire to work withthe Government to grow the ACT economy.Among Australian jurisdictions, the ACT Government’s business and enterprise developmentfunction is disproportionately small. Over time, there has been a diminution of the business andenterprise development function which while not inconsistent with what has been occurringnationally, has occurred at a faster rate in the ACT. Members of the business community havebeen critical of the perceived lack of focus on skills development in the ACT economy, as wellas changes to resources and functions over time, and associated lost opportunities.One example raised was the Knowledge Fund which delivered about $10 million in programfunding over four years to support innovation in businesses. The Knowledge Fund, which wasdiscontinued in 2006, was ultimately responsible for another $100 million in businessinvestment from other sources in the companies and entities it supported. The way theKnowledge Fund was conceived and delivered was highly regarded by the businesscommunity, agency peers and the Commonwealth Government. There has been a move backtowards this approach through the new Icon program.The ACT’s current economic development strategy is set out in Capital Development –Towards Our Second Century, released in 2008 in the lead up to the ACT Election. There arestrong synergies in the direction in that document, the work of the current Business andIndustry Development Division of CMD, the role of LAPS, and work undertaken elsewhere inCMD including on the Live in Canberra program. There is a clear opportunity to better alignLive in Canberra with meeting objectives under the Skills and Business Migration Program.There are also significant opportunities to continue to work closely with educational institutionsto grow a key export industry for Canberra. This is a relationship with education providers of adifferent nature to that which they would have with DET.Alignment of the Skills Agenda across the ACTAn issue raised in consultations, independently of amalgamation of CIT and UC was the potentialfor greater alignment of activities relating to the supply of skilled labour to the ACT economy,including through provision of Vocational Education and Training, with other initiatives tosupport business and the economy in the ACT. This would form part of a range of initiativescovering grants programs, the identification of annual training needs, higher education and skilledmigration priorities, and the determination of CIT’s negotiated ‘profile’ funding.There is an opportunity to align more closely the purchase of training by the ACT Governmentthrough CIT and other VET providers with the needs of the business community as part of amore coordinated approach to skills development in the ACT workforce. The key issue in thiscontext is the location of responsibility for coordinating across the whole of government,advice to the Government on which skills and outcomes it should be purchasing from the VETAdministrative Arrangements Changes: 198