Speaking at the LGPro annual conference Chief Executive Officer of the City of Melbourne, David Pitchford, spoke about Council’s collegiate approach in becoming a major global city. “If we can deliver the City of Melbourne as a great global city this will benefit the rest of metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria,” David Pitchford said.
He said in recent years Melbourne has doubled its number of residents from 32,000 to 64,000. By 2015 this figure is expected to increase to 106,000, largely due to the completion of the Docklands precinct.
“We are delivering over 400 different Local Government services, not only to residents but some 680,000 people who travel into the City each day and a further 78,000 each night,” he said. “By 2015 we expect one million per day and 200,000 each night.
“Averaging ten ships per day, we are Australia’s busiest port. Over the past five years there has been a 127% increase in business activity, and we are the second city in the world (after London) in regard to our number of international students. With seven universities, 25 per cent of our residents are students.”
David Pitchford said we already live in a global economy which can’t be changed. But he says the things we can’t change need to be turned into an advantage otherwise we will be quickly outstripped and passed by others.
“It is not a level playing field,” he said. “There is strong and constant competition out there. Metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria need to join forces and help each other prosper in this global economy.”
David Pitchford said that the City of Melbourne is pursuing a three prong approach:
- taking Melbourne to the world
- bringing the world to Melbourne
- lifting the bar.
Taking Melbourne to the world is based on building global partnerships particularly through vibrant sister city relations. Melbourne now has a permanent office in China in its sister city, Tianjin. Other sister cities include Osaka (Japan), Thessaloniki (Greece), Milan (Italy), St Petersburg (Russia) and Boston (USA).
“The world is rapidly changing and the City of Melbourne is growing and changing with it,” David Pitchford said.
He said bringing the world to Melbourne will certainly kick off in March with Commonwealth Games with most events being staged within three kilometres of the city. The recent three week stop over at Docklands of the Volvo Ocean Race competitors brought some $26 million in benefits, and in 2007 Melbourne is host to the FINA World Swimming Championships.
The recently announced, 5,000 seat convention centre to be built adjacent to the Yarra River is expected to bring an additional $129 million into the economy each year.
“With lifting the bar, we are endeavouring to ensure our city is the best it can be in regard to safety, sustainability and prosperity through our City Plan 2020,” David Pitchford said. “Partnerships again play a vital role. Last year, the first joint sitting of two Victorian Councils occurred when we met with the City of Port Phillip. This has resulted in joint management arrangement for St Kilda Road, in dealing with transport matters and industrial areas.
“A meeting of all Melbourne metropolitan mayors is yet another means to work together, alongside coordinated tourism strategies with other Councils and State agencies. When Melbourne does business, we need to do it with the world, but we need to do this in a collegiate approach with others.”
