By Matt Wade
Extending Sydney’s light rail along Broadway, supporting start-ups, enhancing the night-time economy and accelerating the transition to greener industries are all part of a 10-year plan by the City of Sydney to boost the city’s prosperity.
An economic development strategy to 2035, formally presented to councillors on Monday, includes more than $540 million to be directly invested by the council in economic development. The City of Sydney will also spend $100 million on public works to support proposed new light rail corridors through Broadway and to Green Square.
An artist’s impression of the proposed light rail line along Parramatta Road.Credit:
The extension would underpin the growth of the “Tech Central” innovation district to the south-west of the CBD near Sydney University and University of Technology, Sydney.
During the past three decades the CBD has emerged as a globally competitive hub for financial and professional services. At 26 square kilometres, the City of Sydney council area generates about $142 billion in economic activity each year, or about 6 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product.
Finance and insurance accounts for nearly a third of that ($44 billion), followed by professional services ($28 billion) and information media and telecommunications ($10 billion).
About 520,000 people are employed within the City of Sydney, with nearly half of those jobs located in the northern part of the CBD.
The economic strategy, developed in consultation with local business and community groups, sets a target of adding 200,000 more jobs in the council area by 2035.
“To drive an innovation-led transformation of our economy, we’re targeting 70 per cent of these new jobs to be in knowledge and innovation-intensive industries,” the report says.
At the heart of the council’s strategy is a series of “momentum-building” projects, which includes developing the Tech Central innovation district near Broadway, positioning Sydney as a green financial hub, encouraging the creative use of vacant commercial spaces, boosting the visitor economy, supporting Indigenous enterprises and promoting vibrant streets.
City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said investing in inner Sydney is essential to maintaining the buoyancy of the broader economy.
City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore says the council will spend $100 million on works to support a light rail extension along Broadway. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
“While many aspects of the city economy depend on the work of state and federal governments, the city can make important and direct contributions to promote a vibrant and dynamic environment that facilitates economic growth, especially in the face of a changing business environment,” she said.
Sydney’s CBD was hit hard by COVID-19 restrictions, and some negative effects of those disruptions linger. Like all globally connected urban hubs, inner Sydney faces sustained challenges to its competitiveness.
The economic plan acknowledges that good transport connections are the lifeblood of inner urban precincts; if the council’s 10-year strategy is to succeed, much will depend on improved transport.
Moore said light rail down Parramatta Road and to Green Square would be “an absolute game-changer”, driving investment, creating jobs and opening the way to additional housing.
But the delays and cost blowouts that plagued recent light rail projects in the CBD, eastern suburbs and Parramatta cast a shadow over the council’s strategy. With so many infrastructure projects in the pipeline across the Sydney basin, it may be difficult to convince the state government to fund more costly, disruptive extensions to the light rail network.
Moore admits the light rail extension is “perhaps the hardest” part of the strategy to achieve, but remains hopeful.
“People say it’ll never happen – but that’s what they said about George Street,” she said.
Another economic challenge looming for inner Sydney is the federal government’s plan to limit international student enrolments as it seeks to lower net overseas migration.
More than 200,000 international students now study at tertiary institutions across the City of Sydney, and higher education makes a major contribution to the inner-city economy. A sustained disruption to the sector would likely make the council’s economic strategy harder to achieve.
Moore said climate change “remains a key threat on a number of levels”, from the impact it will have on sectors like tourism to overall liveability and affordability of homes in a city facing extreme heat and flooding.
“The economic strategy seeks to position Sydney as a global hub for net zero innovation, as a way of meeting this threat,” she said.
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