Lord Mayor Sally Capp to skip council budget for Asia trip

Lord Mayor Sally Capp will miss the handing down of her first City of Melbourne budget this week.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp will miss the handing down of her first City of Melbourne budget so she can go to Asia on a council business mission.

Cr Capp will fly out on Thursday for the 10-day trip to cities in China and Indonesia.

In Nanjing, China, she will attend the NEXUS: Jiangsu-Victoria Startup Summit together with the mayors of Whitehorse, Ballarat and Maribyrnong.

Cr Capp will sign a memorandum of understanding there involving co-operation in smart cities, innovation, liveability, sports, biomedicine, trade and education.

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“Melbourne has one of the top five fastest growing start-up sectors in the world,” she said.

“One in four of our start-up businesses were created by people who moved to Melbourne to capitalise on the strength of our start-up market.”

In China, the Lord Mayor is also due to meet with the mayor of Guangzhou, WeChat officials, China Southern Airlines representatives, Austrade officials and the Australian Consul-General.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp will visit Nanjing in China among other cities on her 10-day trip.

In Indonesia, she will attend the Open Innovation Competition, an eventco-hosted by the cities of Bandung and Melbourne “to share new ideas on tackling major city issues such as security, transport and the environment”.

The Indonesian Consul-General will accompany Cr Capp to Indonesia, which will include a meeting with the Governor of West Java.

“Strengthening our relationships with In donesia and China is vital to advancing Melbourne’s prosperity,” the Lord Mayor said.

“This visit will help us build on strong economic ties and we will showcase to the world Melbourne’s key strengths in the innovation, smart cities and start-up sectors.”

Cr Capp’s travel will cost about $13,000 and a senior council officer will also attend.

The trip has been planned for months and council was unable to push back meetings in Asia for the Lord Mayor to attend the council’s budget announcement on Thursday.