NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian delivers plan for Western Sydney Aerotropolis to revitalise manufacturing industry
Premier Gladys Berejiklian is convinced Brexit will result in Western Sydney becoming the leader in manufacturing for the region.
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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been grilled by business leaders over the role the Western Sydney Aerotropolis will have on a new age of manufacturing, delivering produce, products, and ideas across the globe.
Ms Berejiklian forecast a “post-Brexit era” will result in the western suburbs being established as “the leader in manufacturing across the region”.
The NSW Premier addressed the Western Sydney Business Connection in her State of the Region keynote in Warwick Farm, highlighting the significance Western Sydney already has in generating a third of all employment opportunities across the state.
“Western Sydney Airport is all about collaboration, the government is doing their thing investing in infrastructure and provide planning opportunities, but big business is stepping up and recognising the opportunities here as well,” she said.
Ms Berejiklian earmarked the Aerotropolis would “give Western Sydney the edge” when it came to the knowledge based industry boom, following the singing of memorandums of understanding with a total of 17 multinational organisation committing to investment in the Aerotropolis. But, continued to be questioned over how she will tackle the decline in opportunities for manufacturing based in NSW.
“We are seeing new industries emerge which didn’t exist 20 or 30 years ago,” she said. “We need to focus on jobs and industries which we don’t really have a good idea of where they’re going to get into the future.
“Because if there’s a new industry emerging, let’s be the ones to find it and implement it (at Western Sydney Aerotropolis), let’s not wait for someone else to do it, because they automatically bring jobs with them as well.”
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Ms Berejiklian said she was convinced the state’s manufacturing industry, once shut out of the world by high labour costs, would be reinvigorated by businesses “leading the charge in 3D printing with direct access to parts of the world that currently don’t have direct flights to Sydney”.
“We are looking forward to free-trade agreements in a post-Brexit world, because countries like Germany and Japan want us to be their manufacturing base in the region, meaning they can export their products and services instantly because the airport is right on their doorstep,” she said.
“We will increase our balance of trade with a lot of countries and become more diverse as part of our export business to compete with those other big countries.
“If we get this model right, there will be huge demand for the parts, devices and the technology that will be generated at the Aerotropolis as well.”