Economic development conference opens in Townsville

Date: Tuesday, 20th October 2009

Tropical Australia needs to realise its potential as leader of a global economic zone, according to a keynote speaker at tomorrow’s North Queensland Economic Development Conference.

Queensland’s chief scientist, Professor Peter Andrews, will address the 130 delegates about his vision to harness northern Australia’s natural resources and brainpower, and take a large share of a $US40 trillion economy that will exist along the equator by 2025.

Under the banner of Troplinks (an alliance of research bodies, companies, industry groups and economic development organisations), Dr Andrews says northern Australia will be well placed to capture a slice of this market.

“The tropical world is growing rapidly. This economy will be 20 times greater than Australia’s projected GDP,” he said.

“By building knowledge-intensive industries, producing tropical goods and services, northern Queensland can access the fastest growing and least contested markets in the world, and the tropical world can gain access to the fruits of our outstanding research.”

Dr Andrews is far from a stereotypical scientist. A chemist by qualification, he is an entrepreneur who has directed more than 10 scientific companies. One of his firms, Biota, is the maker of the anti-flu drugs Relenza and Tamiflu, which made headlines during the swine flu pandemic and prompted the company’s share price to rise by 82 per cent. Next year, one of his current interests, Alchemia, will launch the anti-bloodclotting drug, Arixtra.

Not surprisingly, he is on a lifelong quest to find out why Australian businesses do not spend much money on research and development.

“The key to achieving this position lies in our ability to create networks in education, research, business and government with tropical countries in our region, and to build stronger linkages between researchers and businesses, between entrepreneurs and investors, and between Australian companies and their future tropical markets,” he said.

Other speakers at the two-day gathering include:

• Townsville Mayor Cr Les Tyrell
• BIS Shrapnel chief economist Dr Frank Gelber (North Qld Economic and Industry Outlook)
• Industry strategist Rodin Genoff
• Supply chain specialist Olaf Schatteman from Portland Group
• Public/industry policy speaker Andrew Barger from the Queensland Resources Council
• Change and sustainability specialist Vanessa Sullivan from Ernst and Young

The conference opens at the Mercure Inn at 8.50am Wednesday with a welcome address by Cr Tyrell. For a schedule, visit the Economic Development Conference page.