The Communiqué from the ninth annual national Sustainable Economic Growth for Regional Australia (SEGRA) conference staged in Yeppoon, Queensland last September is calling on government at national, state and local levels to act in six key areas in the interests of sustainable economic growth for regional Australia.
According to SEGRA Director, Kate Charters, the Communiqué stands to bring together the contributions of over 270 delegates at the conference representing all levels of government, key policy advisors and decision makers in regional Australia, industry and practitioner representatives and researchers.
“Sustainable regional development is fundamental to Australia’s economic future; this year the key issues of concern included national and global drivers of change in regional economies, understanding triple bottom line relationships and increasing uncertainty, the importance of leadership and collaboration and fostering Indigenous enterprise,“ Kate Charters said.
“Key features of SEGRA are the broad cross section of presenters, diversity of content and the outcome action focus of participants. This lead to lively discussion and debate which revealed that successful regions were those that anticipated change, identified the inter relationships between environmental, social changes and the triple bottom line and took all of these dimensions of sustainable regional economic development into consideration when making regional decisions.
“The need to improve data collection and analysis, communication and information dissemination, fostering leadership and promoting Indigenous Enterprise in regional Australia were all suggested actions taken from the key concerns raised.”
The SEGRA annual conference plays a critical role in promoting issues of regional Australia. A full copy of the communiqué can be obtained from the website at www.segra.com.au/segra
A copy of the SEGRA 2005 conference proceedings can be purchased from SEGRA Secretariat on (07) 3210 0021. SEGRA 2006 will be held in Launceston, Northern Tasmania from 28–30 August 2006.
