Discussion draft
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
FRAMEWORK
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The draft Economic Development Framework defines a path forward for the Northern Territory’s
long term economic growth which will create opportunities and underpin the standard of living
for Territorians.
The draft framework is the result of extensive
consultation by government, business and
industry, Indigenous, regional and community
stakeholders following a series of forums,
workshops and Economic Summits across the
Northern Territory. It has also been supported
by extensive research into appropriate
development strategies for economies like
the Northern Territory.
Government has a role in supporting economic
development, but it is very much a supporting
role. Today’s Government expenditure as a
proportion of the Northern Territory economy
is significant, but is not sustainable over the long
term. Governments can only spend money they
collect from households and businesses, and
Government debt is repaid from future
collections. Sustainable economic and jobs
growth can only come from private sector
investment and entrepreneurship.
There are subtle differences between pursuing
economic growth and economic development.
If we are to grow the economy we need to find
new sources of income, and this is only possible
if Territory businesses earn income from selling
goods and services to other Australians, and
overseas. This injects new money into our
economy, and we need to pursue this with a
sense of urgency. New sources of income will
provide the funds that can be re-invested into
new infrastructure and jobs. Strategies that
bring new income streams to the Territory are
critical, and can fund longer term development
plans which require more time and careful
nurturing to bear fruit.
The Northern Territory is closer to Asia than
most other Australian jurisdictions. Asia includes
a market that has 400 million people just five
hours north of us, compared to the 24 million
people five hours to the south of us.
The draft framework sets out a range of actions
to get the fundamentals of the Northern
Territory’s economy right. The framework
recognises that development is a partnership
between government and the private sector, and
each play a critical role. Together we can define
the future that we want, and identify pathways to
get there. Government will provide information,
regulatory certainty and strategic investment
to facilitate private sector activity. The private
sector will identify commercial opportunities,
assess risks, and secure capital to underpin the
activities needed to secure new income streams.
Challenges
The Northern Territory’s economy reflects
abundant natural resources, a relatively large public
sector and Defence presence, and a relatively small
private sector. Major projects have often had a
significant influence on the Territory economy, and
opportunities for Territorians.
With one per cent of Australia’s population living on
one sixth of its land mass, the Northern Territory’s
unique setting creates challenges, including:
• significant distances separating our population
centres from each other, and Australia
• tyrannies of distance, remoteness, isolation
and scale which affect all aspects of our
economy and standard of living
• our people and businesses need to be
particularly innovative and acquire broad
skills as our setting often requires us to be
self-reliant.
Our economy has grown considerably over the
past decade supported by a steady stream of
major projects. Our economic output (GSP) has
grown to almost $24 billion in 2016–17 and our
population has grown to 244 000 people.
Opportunities
The draft Economic Development Framework
identifies actions to support more sustainable
economic and jobs growth, underpinned by
having the right policy settings.
Private sector investment
It is critical to all Territorians that we adopt a
systematic approach to growing private sector
investment. Demonstrating the financial benefits
private investment can create will make it easier
for private sector investment in the Northern
Territory to grow, and new jobs will follow.
To demonstrate the potential benefits of
the private sector investing in the Northern
Territory, we need to:
Research also identified the potential to
grow sectors that could make a broader and
deeper contribution than they do today. The
development sectors identified are:
SECTOR
• improve our understanding of the demand for,
and potential profitability of, supplying Northern
Territory products and services to markets
• investigate the products buyers look for, the
best way to get products to these buyers, and
which distribution channels to use
• investigate which partners to engage with,
how and where value is added along the
supply chain, and how much Territory
businesses and investors could Land
benefit.
Economic levers, growth sectors and
development sectors
People
Broad consultation identified six specific levers
that can be activated to influence and grow the
Capital
economy and jobs:
Creative
CreativeIndustries
Industries
Tropical
TropicalHealth
Healthand
andResearch
Research
Renewable
RenewableEnergy
Energy
Environmental
EnvironmentalServices
Services
Human
HumanServices
Services
Implementation and actions
Research and feedback from the Economic Summit
process highlighted several common themes
Enterprise
Enterprise and Innovation
to grow the economy. These themes, and the
& Innovation
underlying actions, cover multiple industry sectors.
SECTOR
Natural Land
Resource
People
People
Connectivity
Connectivity
Agribusiness
Capital
Captial
SECTOR
Liveability
Livability
Electricity
The themes identified include:
• improving cooperation and Public
collaboration
Safety and Justice
across all industries to develop a shared
vision, priorities and plan for working with and
within government
Education and Training
• jointly developing co-designed and agreed
plans over a reasonable timeframe to provide
businesses with certainty to invest in plant,
Health
equipment and create jobs
These levers can be used to prioritise
Enterprise and Innovation
infrastructure investment for growth sectors, so
Water
that we get the best return from this investment.
From the research and feedback received during
• ensuring regulation is well targeted and strikes a
Connectivity
the Economic Summit there is a clear, broad
balance
between
different
Public
Safetyprotecting
and Justice
Energy and Minerals
Housinginterests
consensusAgribusiness
that five industries will be a major
and encouraging innovation and growth
source of future private sector investment and
• government investing strategically to enable
Liveability
jobs growth in the Northern Territory. These are
private
sector investment
toArt,
grow
and create
Electricity
Education
and Training
Culture
and Active Recre
Tourism
the growth
sectors:
jobs.
RSECTOR
The final version of the Economic Development
Public Safety and Justice
Defence
Defence
and Related
Industries
Digital
Health
Public
Safety
andFramework
Justice
will be published in May 2017,
supported by a disciplined implementation
strategy that identifies key milestones and
Energy
International
Electricity
Education
Training
Energy
and Minerals Education
Transport and
Logistics
Housing
and
Training
methods
to track and
progress.
and minerals
education
gribusiness
ectricity
Water
Agribusiness
Agribusiness
Water
Water
Tourism
Tourism
Health
Energy and
andMinerals
Related Industries
nergy and Minerals Defence
Housing
Health
Art, Culture and Active Recreation
Housing
Digital
This document is a discussion draft produced for public
feedback and input.
Comments, feedback and ideas are welcome before
Monday 3 April.
You can have your say:
• in person at the public economic summits
• by emailing [email protected]
• by providing feedback online at
economicsummit.nt.gov.au
• in writing to the Northern Australia Development Office,
GPO Box 3200, Darwin NT 0801.