A delegation of Chinese municipal government representatives on a fact finding mission to Queensland made a stop in Cairns to meet with industry leaders last week. The meeting, facilitated by Advance Cairns following an approach by Trade Queensland, was the first in a series of engagements that included meetings in Brisbane and the Gold Coast for the six delegates from the Zhuhai Municipal Government in Guandong Province.

Hosted by Advance Cairns Director and Cairns Mayor Val Schier, the meeting was also attended by Advance Cairns directors Rob Giason and Jeremy Blockey, economic development officer Sarah Powell, Cairns Airport Executive General Manager Kayleen Collins, Queensland China Council Chairperson Sim Hayward, JCU Cairns Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Scott Bowman and DTRDI TradeStart Export Advisor  John Bissell.

The delegates from the Zhuhai Working Group of Foreign Affairs were eager to explore business opportunities in a range of areas including: tourism (super yachts, hospitality training, maintaining unique natural environment in tourist developments); aviation (precision machinery, aircraft maintenance flight training and China-Australia flight routes), education and primary industries.

The introductory meeting paved the way for ongoing discussions of trade opportunities and sharing of expertise between Zhuhai and Cairns, and concluded with a formal invitation by the Deputy Director of Foreign Affairs for a Cairns delegation of business and industry leaders to Zhuhai in 2009.

Millions of dollars worth of major infrastructure project opportunities available to Cairns businesses will be outlined at a forum in the city this week, Advance Cairns advises. Hosted by the Industry Capability Network (ICN), the two-hour forum will identify current and upcoming major infrastructure and industrial projects in the Cairns region, valued in excess of $1 billion, as well as provide advice on how local manufacturers and value-adding service providers can access such opportunities.

Advance Cairns Chairman, Russell Beer has urged local businesses to take advantage of the opportunities the forum will provide. “This forum will give local businesses a foot in the door for a variety of projects that they may otherwise be unaware of,” Mr Beer said. “We see this as the perfect opportunity to connect local businesses with large-scale opportunities arising from regional development,” he said.

Guest speakers from the ICN will explain how they assist in procurement and project management to maximise local content, while representatives from Thiess will provide an update on the $445m expansion of the Lotus Glen Correctional Centre. The Major Hospitals Project Office will also provide an update on the background of the Cairns Base Hospital upgrade and the changes in store for the facility.

The event will be held in conjunction with the Cairns office of the Department of Tourism, Regional Development and Industry. The Major Projects forum will be held from 7.00am – 9.00am on Friday, November 21 at the Sebel Cairns (formerly the Cairns International Hotel).

To register, contact the Cairns office of the Department of Tourism, Regional Development and Industry on 4048 1110, or Eddo Roggeveen on 3364 0678.

Do you need a professional with skills relevant to the Tropics? North Queensland experts within the Tropical Expertise sector are now listed on the Australian Tropical Expertise Consortium database, publicly available at www.australiantropicalexpertise.com.

Professionals with skills across diverse sectors such as agribusiness, environment, tourism, health, and design are working together to achieve the critical mass necessary to break into lucrative international markets.

The website is an initiative of Advance Cairns with support from the Department of Tourism, Regional Development and Industry, and aims to encourage local firms to recognise the value of their unique Tropical knowledge and the opportunities which exist in external markets.

Advance Cairns CEO, Mr Ross Contarino said “Locally, we take our tropical knowledge for granted and don’t recognise it as a competitive advantage - countries in the global tropics are continually seeking the knowledge that we have developed in Northern Australia”.

“The website and database illustrates the impressive quality of skills found right across the Tropical Expertise subsectors, further supporting our region’s reputation as innovative and practical” Mr Contarino concluded.

Steve Raaymakers of EcoStrategic Consultants, a Cairns based consultancy which works globally with a current focus on Asia-Pacific, believes Tropical Expertise can assist Queensland companies when competing for contracts in the global tropics.

“For small organisations, engaging with international markets can be daunting”, said Mr Raaymakers. “The Tropical Expertise database will assist us in identifying project partners and act as a communication channel for new opportunities. The website will also strengthen the identity of the Tropical Expertise sector to potential clients and promote the Consortium members as a professional body”.

North Queensland professionals are encouraged to register their Tropical Expertise capabilities with the Australian Tropical Expertise Consortium database.

Ongoing community concern that proceeds from the Cairns Airport sale will be spent outside of the region could be addressed by the Queensland Treasurer, through implementing a local advisory committee to counsel the Future Growth Fund, says Advance Cairns.

Despite reiterations from the Queensland Treasurer last week that sale proceeds from the Cairns Airport sale will be used exclusively for TNQ projects through the Future Growth Fund, concerns remain regarding this commitment and in particular its reliability if changes happen either within this Government or if there is a change of Government.

Advance Cairns CEO, Mr Ross Contarino said, “Feedback from the local business community suggests they are yet to be convinced by words alone from the government on this matter, despite our local State Members keeping this issue in the forefront of the Treasurer’s thinking”.

Advance Cairns considers that the Treasurer could go a long way towards allaying the concerns of Tropical North Queenslanders by utilising a section of the Future Growth Fund legislation, which provides for the formation of a local advisory committee to give the Future Growth Fund counsel on the best use of those funds.

The Treasurer also has the power under the legislation to issue a binding direction to the Fund that those monies must be spent in Tropical North Queensland.

“Confirming the issue of such a direction and setting up a local advisory committee will give the local community better confidence in and, some ownership of, the whole process” said Mr Contarino.

“The board of Advance Cairns still objects to the sale of the airport to finance the hospital projects but concedes the development of the Future Fund for upcoming regional projects as the best outcome for the current situation”, said Mr Contarino.

“We will be writing to the Treasurer outlining this recommendation for his consideration and will also be utilising the opportunity of the Cairns sitting of Parliament next month to discuss the proposal with the Treasurer personally and convince him that this is the best way forward”, Mr Contarino went on to say.

Recognising new trade opportunities and improving the region’s supply chain are some of the benefits anticipated from an Airfreight study commissioned by Advance Cairns in conjunction with the Department of Tourism, Regional Development and Industry.

Chief Executive Officer for Advance Cairns Ross Contarino said, “We are trying to gain a better perspective of the freight being sent out of our region, to ascertain where it is going, how it is getting there and if there is an opportunity of distributing more through the Cairns International Airport.”

The study is aimed at two major objectives, the first is to see if there are more opportunities to consolidate produce in the Tropical North Queensland region and reduce the amount of produce that is trucked down to Brisbane and sometimes back again to TNQ supermarkets. The second is to see if there is an opportunity to entice further airline operators to utilise Cairns International Airport by providing evidence of possible airfreight capacity.

“The project is a joint effort with not only ourselves and the State Department involved but we have support from the Regional Organisation of Councils, the Airfreight Council of Queensland and TTNQ”, said Mr Contarino.

“We have engaged a very well respected firm of Sydney based airline economists, Strategic Design and Development to undertake the work” stated Mr Contarino.

“We are anticipating the outcome of this research will be better transport solutions for local produce and increased capacity for airfreight, which makes our airport more attractive to some carriers” Mr Contarino explained.

Officers from Strategic Design and Development are in Cairns this week meeting with companies involved with the transport and sale of TNQ produce.

The reputation of Townsville as the economic capital of North Queensland is under scrutiny after figures taken from the 2006 census and extrapolated by local economist Bill Cummings show Tropical North Queensland has the bigger and stronger economy - which is predicted to grow at a faster rate than our northern neighbors.

CEO of Advance Cairns Ross Contarino said that he was pleasantly surprised at the strength of our local economy at it compared with other Northern regions.

“Having moved here from Townsville, it was easy to believe the constant rhetoric that the Townsville region was the North’s real powerhouse but after perusing the information extracted from the 2006 census by Bill Cummings, I think all the hype might have been just that” said Mr Contarino.

The figures show that at 265,000 the population of the Tropical North Queensland region is clearly the largest population centre in Northern Australia - eclipsing both Townsville and Darwin. More importantly, it will continue to grow at a higher rate than the other northern centres and by 2026 our population is predicted to grow by up to 20% more than that of the Townsville region.

“The number of people in the workforce was also well ahead of the other northern centres, which is unexpected considering Townsville’s high military and government staff numbers”, explained Mr Contarino.

He went on to say, “this is also equally true regarding business enterprise numbers where our region has nearly 50% more businesses than our counterparts in the Townsville Region”.

“There is also good news regarding the construction industry, where TNQ significantly leads Northern Australia in both building approvals and construction jobs”.

“We don’t have everything going our way, we trail behind the North Queensland region in mining employment but we do have significantly more jobs in the retail sector”, Mr Contarino said.

“It is a different story in agriculture where our gross agricultural production is the highest of all the Northern Regions and the amount of employment in this sector clearly outstrips them as well”.

“Regarding Tourism, of course we all knew that our visitor numbers would be the highest but it is interesting to see that our visitors outnumber both the Townsville and Mackay/Whitsunday numbers combined”.

“Whilst we lag behind some of the other regions in numbers of jobs in the manufacturing segment, we unmistakably lead the others in the Finance, Insurance, Property and Professional Business sectors and we have 25% more manufacturing businesses than Townsville region and almost double that of Darwin. We are the stand out leaders in employment figures in people involved in the Creative Industries” Mr Contarino went on to say.

“For many years there has been a perception in Queensland that the Tropical North is only good for a holiday, but the figures tell us this region is brimming with employment and investment opportunities. In a national sense, Tropical North Queensland’s economy is very strong and looks set to be a leader in Australia’s north”, Mr Contarino said.

Click here to read the selection process and position description for the Advance Cairns Board of Directors

Released Tuesday 15th July, 2008

The State Government has placed its support behind Advance Cairns and the diversification of the TNQ economy with today’s funding announcement for the local economic development body. 

TNQ Skills Master Class Slide Notes 

TNQ Skills Master Class Presentations

The TNQ Skills Master Class brought together representatives from local government, training bodies, small business and industry to hear local perspectives on the skills shortage.  The key driver behind the event was to promote positive, proven strategies within the business community to counteract the skills shortage and to also present new ideas accessible to regional employers.

The presentation notes from each of the six speakers are available as a resource for everyone.  To access the PDF documents, please click on the links above.

The position of Chief Executive Officer at Advance Cairns has been filled, with the announcement on Tuesday, June 4th 2008 that Mr Ross Contarino has accepted the position.

In announcing the appointment, Advance Cairns Chairman Russell Beer highlighted Mr Contarino’s extensive knowledge of issues and his relationships across Tropical North Queensland both professionally and personally as key strengths which he will bring to the role.

“Advance Cairns and TNQ will benefit enormously from Ross’s abilities, passion and ongoing commitment to regional Queensland”, Mr Beer said. 

“His extensive background in Queensland regional development and detailed knowledge of the key drivers and industries across northern Queensland and northern Australia generally will be a valuable resource to Advance Cairns and our region”.

With key issues on the agenda including the airport privatisation, ongoing health issues, the draft FNQ2025 plan and a looming state election, with his background Mr Contarino is ideally positioned to hit the ground running and apply his extensive expertise for the benefit of TNQ.

Mr Contarino has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors.

He is currently the North Queensland Regional Manager for the Australian Government agency AusIndustry and has previously occupied a similar role to the one he will fill for Advance Cairns as CEO of the Townsville based North Queensland Economic Development Board.

“Decisions will soon be made on issues which will influence the long term strategic direction of the region and it is vital Advance Cairns is active at every stage of those decision making processes”, said Mr Contarino.

“It is important TNQ presents a united front to state and federal politicians and I am looking forward to collaborating and working with other local organisations concerned with economic development in the region as well as with local businesses”.

“The Advance Cairns model presents an excellent platform to facilitate this and I anticipate working closely with the constituent bodies” concluded Mr. Contarino.

It is anticipated Mr Contarino will commence in this role in early July, taking over from the interim CEO, Mr Bill Calderwood.

Mr Beer made note of the great value of Mr Calderwood’s contribution as Interim CEO, and thanked him for getting the organisation back on track and ready for Mr. Contarino to drive it to the next level.