Economic experts planning city’s long-term recovery
Date published: 18 February 2019
The city’s long-term economic recovery planning and lobbying for critical job-creating projects is already being undertaken by a group of experts.
Team Townsville has economic forecasters and policy specialists formulating a long-term recovery plan to ensure the city has the skilled workers to rebuild our city and major infrastructure projects are timed appropriately to continue jobs growth.
Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said the task to rebuild the city would be huge but the community was up to the task.
“Businesses and residents have been hit hard by this unprecedented flood but I know how resilient Townsville is,” Cr Hill said.
“The recovery effort is already well underway and our team of experts is planning exactly what challenges our economy will face during the rebuild.”
Townsville Local Recovery and Resilience Group Chair Deputy Mayor Les Walker said work was already being undertaken to plan and lobby for major projects to boost our economy into the long term.
“We know there’s going to be a huge amount of jobs created during the rebuild from sparkies to plumbers and chippies,” Cr Walker said.
“It is important we plan now to ensure we secure funding for major projects to continue employment opportunities for our community – particularly local tradespeople.”
Governance and Finance Committee Chair Cr Verena Coombe said work was also being done to ensure insurers used as many local workers as possible.
“The insurance industry needs to give every opportunity for local businesses to be part of the rebuild of our city,” Cr Coombe said.
“We have the capacity and the skills to rebuild our city more resilient than before.”
