Federation Council has thanked the wider community following the completion of its recent Economic Development Strategy community engagement sessions.
Council invited members of the community to get involved in the development of the Strategy by completing a short online survey, and by attending one of the community workshops held in early May.
Federation Council Mayor, Cr Pat Bourke said Council appreciated the high level of excitement that it received from the community during the consultation phase.
“Council is really looking forward to now finalizing the inaugural Economic Development Strategy,” he said.
“We had over 100 participants attend the engagement sessions and to say our community is excited to develop the strategy is an understatement. The economy in the Federation Council region has traditionally been supported by strong agriculture sector, however, following the sessions it is evident that our region has a number of emerging sectors, such as manufacturing and retail, which will play a key role in our future economy. This Strategy will cater for all sectors in our region, and ensure we have a diverse, resilient and sustainable economy in the future.”
Mayor Bourke said the Economic Development Strategy will position the regional economy for future success and enable economic benefits to be realised by local residents, businesses, investors and visitors.
“We want the Strategy to be guided by the Community. Economic development is not about Council dictating what will happen; it is about collaborating with the community to come up with strategic objectives that we can all work towards together. I would like to take this opportunity to formally thank the community for their input and I look forward with anticipation to the strategy coming to Council in draft format for public exhibition in the near future.”
The purpose of developing the Economic Development Strategy is to provide clear and comprehensive strategic guidelines and tools for supporting the development of the Federation economy across the entire local government area.
The draft strategy will be presented to Council in July 2021, and placed on public exhibition for a 28 day period, before returning to Council for them to consider final adoption.