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“It is important to encourage business talent and success in regional areas as prosperous regional communities means a more prosperous and socially vibrant Australia” says Mark Bradbury, president of the Goulburn Chamber of Commerce.
As such, the chamber has been “wholeheartedly committed to assisting local businesses of any size and at any stage of development, even those which may only be embryonic, to grow and thereby contribute to the growth and prosperity of the Goulburn region,” he said.
Since last year, the chamber has structured its program of monthly meetings to reflect this commitment, and a guest speaker has addressed almost all of those meetings.
They were drawn from a cross-section of the community and included local federal member Angus Taylor, the managing director Southern Infrastructure Pty Ltd Paul Watson and Marlo Perry from Destination Southern NSW.
Additionally, interested persons or businesses have been encouraged to contact the chamber for further details, including written material, about not just the forthcoming meetings but also the support programs that are available.
See the eEdition of the wrap on today’s The Post Weekly:
ALL OF THE LOCAL ECONOMIES MATTER
Mr Bradbury made the very important point that “Regional Australia contributes one third of our national output and is home to 8.8 million Australians.
“As a result, regions provide employment for one in three working Australians. Regions have contributed half of the nation’s growth since the Global Financial crisis, fulfilling their role as a source of resilience for the national economy. However, regional Australia is lagging in terms of capability and investment capacity supporting the new economy.
“The programs, people, property and capital supporting the new economy are heavily skewed towards the major cities. They house a disproportional number of the country’s co-working facilities, start-up incubators, accelerator programs, angel investment groups and venture capital funds.
“Recognising that regional businesses often do not have ready access to the resources available in bigger cities, [the chamber’s] initiative focuses on growing regional businesses through easy access to resources, tools to help business growth, access to business mentors, and networking opportunities and building local community support.”
Throughout 2018, the chamber continued with this emphasis “on providing the opportunities for businesses owners and operators to meet and hopefully develop on-going connections with business-growth service providers, to assist them commence or grow their business, and thereby contribute to the growth and prosperity of the Goulburn region.”
NETWORKING
“Another of the opportunities whereby the business community can get together and in which the chamber has been involved in setting up is Goulburn Connect.”
These meet-ups, held in Goulburn since March 2018, “provide the opportunity for local businesses to learn from each other, develop partnerships and discover opportunities to innovate together. It also provides an opportunity for businesses to meet with representatives from government to discuss current grants and programs that may assist.”