Future Gold Coast: Urbis director Paul Riga says city’s future depends on ability to create jobs

The future of the Gold Coast depends critically on our ability to keep creating jobs, writes Urbis director Paul Riga. Here’s why it’s so critical to the city’s growth.

The future of the Gold Coast depends critically on our ability to keep creating jobs. Queensland Government forecasts predict 178,520 new jobs will be created on the Gold Coast by 2041.

We are going to have the best chance of creating those new jobs if we embrace the fact the Gold Coast is a non-capital city — a Second City — and play to our strengths.

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The city has always been entrepreneurial. Picture by Scott Fletcher

We’ve always been entrepreneurial. In our first 60 years, our fierce entrepreneurial spirit drove the development of our property and tourism industry; sectors which remain the cornerstones of our economy today.

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The opportunity now is to draw on that same entrepreneurial spirit as we keep diversifying our economic base.

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Paul Riga from Urbis. Picture: supplied

Urbis see a broad range or emerging opportunities to do that; some of them big plays, others slight pivots.

We need to keep supporting our property and tourism sectors with a business environment that creates investor confidence. Consistency is key.

Detractors have historically labelled the Gold Coast “God’s Waiting Room” because of the levels of interstate migration amongst retirees. The detractors have never been righter than now; we are uniquely well placed to capitalise on the huge opportunities that will drive job growth in these sectors.

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There are also big opportunities in the education sector. We have great institutions and they are competing on a global stage. Access to great talent, to reliable, high-speed digital infrastructure and to opportunities for collaboration in research and innovation are three of our most compelling features that will attract investment in businesses, both big and small.

We need to be open to new ways of planning and building our neighbourhoods. We’ve planned our city to deliberately force people to live, work and play in different parts of the city. This traditional approach was soundly based but we now need to take a more nuanced approach. Mixed use and well-connected neighbourhoods. If we get that right, we will enable the creation of new jobs, new industries, and a better lifestyle for everyone.