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Dubbo Photo News June 6-12, 2019 IN BRIEF
REGIONAL BUSINESS
Innovation needed for regional business boom Western Research Institute chair Juliet Duff y (right) with CEO Business Council Chief Executive Jennifer Westacott.
By YVETTE AUBUSSON-FOLEY FRESH from presenting at a Strong Australia Network event in Bathurst last week, Dubbo businesswoman and Western Research Institute (WRI) chair Juliet Duffy believes regional Australia is on the verge of a boom. “At the event we looked at the economic position of the central west and at opportunities like the new Western Sydney Airport,” she told Dubbo Photo News. “That’s going to be a big opportunity for us. A lot of the just-intime product and fresh produce means we could service from the region to the airport and then overnight it can be in another country,” Ms Duffy said. Infrastructure and innovation will be essential, she says. “With innovation, I think regional Australia is going to lead the way. A lot of the time, because of our remoteness, we have to tinker, we have to fix things ourselves, we have to improvise. When you look at innovation, you have to think outside the square because a lot of the time what you need is not just down the road. We are cultured to be innovative,” she said. However access to opportu-
State of the Region returns with Jonathan Pain THE Dubbo regional business world will gather at the 2019 RDA Orana State of the Region dinner in June, to hear keynote speaker Jonathan Pain of the Pain Report. Jonathan’s weekly Pain Report provides independent perspective on the key economic and political events that are moving global financial markets. He has run investment teams in London, Bahrain and Sydney, appears regularly on CNBC and Sky Business TV, and is an associate of China Matters, an Australian-based think tank. The State of the Region dinner is being held at Bellotti’s Italian Dining on Thursday, June 13.
Virtual reality health research on display
VIRTUAL reality experiences in medicine including “swimming” down blood streams to see the effect of viruses, building a model ear, and creating a world that looks identical to the scene of a rural accident will be displayed at the sixth Western Health Research Network (WHRN) conference in Dubbo. An ‘Empathy Suit’ developed by the Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health will also be on display. The conference is on Wednesday, June 19, at the Dubbo Regional Theatre. Registrations close Monday, June 17. Students receive a 50 per cent discount.
PHOTO: STRONG AUSTRALIA NETWORK Inc.
nities still frustrates regional business. “It’s down to the procurement process. If you look at the tenders released for the Inland Rail for example, the regions are only just now starting to get roadshows to regional businesses about this. The multinationals are already involved. “Regional engagement has got to stop just being ‘government speak’ or ’tick-a-box’ policies that send us a roadshow and tell us, oh yeah, this is what’s happening, we’ve got all these opportunities. That has to start early in the design.” A prevailing country cousin perception of regional business, however, remains a real issue. “We need to positively promote the fantastic businesses that we’ve got out here and the
innovations that they’re doing.” The Western Research Institute recently released its 2018 annual report which showed it helped secure $700 million in investment into regional projects. “Because we’ve been around for 20 years, we’re not just interpreting economic, social or environmental data based on raw statistics alone. We have that insight into what’s happening in the regions. We know how they tick. We’re not sitting in an ivory tower in metropolitan areas. “Our mantra too is to push for regional development and growth sustainably. It’s not all about profit and using all our resources or depleting all of our resources. It about how we can do it sustainably and have that longterm employment and liveability of our regions,” she said.
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