Multinational manufacturing shift from Asia presents opportunities for Sydney

Sydney should be prepared to “pick winners” to take advantage of a new interest by multinationals in shifting manufacturing to advanced economies.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports reports on comments by the new Greater Sydney Commission boss Geoff Roberts to a Committee for Sydney event yesterday. Roberts said the focus on central Asia for manufacturing centres was moving, with renewed interest in destinations such as NSW and Victoria here, and certain Canadian cities, the US west coast and Scandinavia overseas.

The rule of law, educated workforces and lower sovereign risks were cited.

According to Roberts, such companies had expressed interest in the Aerotropolis site and Westmead in western Sydney, and the Central station to Eveleigh corridor (the proposed Sydney Innovation and Technology Precinct) as well as certain regional hubs for advanced manufacturing operations. Focus would be necessary to making the best of it, according to Roberts.

“If we’re going to be successful at coagulating the best businesses in the world with the best universities we’ve got to offer, with the highest trained workforce, then we have to pick winners,” The SMH reports him as saying.

Citing the shift in preference for manufacturing cites globally, the GSC chief commissioner said “we’ve gone from 25-odd deals in the pipeline to over 50 deals in one month at the height of Covid-19.”

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