Mayor's 'four ingredients' for Coast's future revealed

Mayor Mark Jamieson has revealed his "four ingredients” for the Coast's success during his seventh annual State of the Region address.

FUTURE: Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson gave his State of the Region address on Friday. Picture: Warren Lynam

MAYOR Mark Jamieson has revealed his "four ingredients” for the Coast's success during his seventh annual State of the Region address.

With the festive season bearing down, the Sunshine Coast Mayor gave an insight into the year that had been and four pillars he believed would hold the region in good stead in years to come.

Borrowing from Four Ingredients author Kim McCosker's formula, Cr Jamieson identified the following as key:

• Engendering a sense of purpose and resilience in our community;
• Maintaining and enhancing our natural environment;
• Getting the economic settings right; and,
• Having a clear plan for how we embrace the future.

Business owners and local land care volunteers joined Cr Jamieson at times on stage at in Birtinya on Friday as he covered some of the highlights of the past year and identified key goals for the next decade.

Cr Jamieson said the region's household incomes had improved from 22 per cent below the state average to about 9 per cent below, and he hoped to see the region on level-pegging with the Queensland average within the next 10 years.

The Mayor said there were 25,000 more people employed in the region than five years ago and 9000 more residents had jobs in the past 12 months.

"Our annual employment growth of 5.3 per cent is well ahead of the state's jobs growth at 3.6 per cent,” he said.

Cr Jamieson said there had been $1.64 billion worth of building approvals recorded during the last financial year and a 9 per cent increase in approvals for commercial and aged care developments compared to the previous financial year.

Visitation and the region's environmental credentials were also spruiked.

Cr Jamieson said a record number of 13 cruise ships were scheduled to visit the Coast in 2019, including Asia's newest luxury ship, the Explorer Dream, which had confirmed six visits to the region in a deal worth about $2.9 million to the local economy.

Health scored a mention, with Cr Jamieson lauding the population's lowest in the state rate of overweight or obese adults and the Coast's status as a state leader in fruit and vegetable consumption.

The region's leader also spoke of the $44 million investment being made in libraries, galleries and community facilities and services, as well as upgrades of town centres and spaces.

More than $7 million was invested in the past year to secure 405ha of land across the Maroochy, Mary and Mooloolah catchments for conservation.