ANDREW Barr has released a plan to support Canberra businesses to grow into international markets, and to attract some the best and brightest minds around the world to our city.

“Canberra simply cannot grow if we are only selling to ourselves. It’s important, for our city’s future, that we start to look global,” Andrew said.

“Opening our doors to investment, trade and genuine international engagement is the key to success for this city. It is how we will diversify the economy and drive prosperity well into the future.

“Led by the newly appointed Commissioner for International Engagement, Brendan Smyth, the Strategy sets the path of action to achieve the Government’s 2050 vision to be internationally recognised as one of the world’s great innovation, creation and arts city, while remaining the world’s most liveable city.

“Canberra is well on the way to becoming a true international city of the 21st century and being recognised as one of the Asia Pacific’s cities of the future.

“To support the Strategy, we will use a whole-of-government approach to drive economic development and diversification through a number of sectors that we have both critical mass and competitive advantage. These include our higher education, research and training sector, tourism, defence and cyber security, renewable energy, ICT and digital Government, space and spatial technologies, and health and sports science.

“Canberra is creating successful international businesses with scale and international impact such as Aspen Medical, co-founded by Glenn Keys. We are all aware of the growth and impact of Canberra International Airport and the incredible vision and energy of the Snow family behind it. There are also a plethora of rising company stars like the Citadel Group, Uberglobal, eWay, Instaclustr and Seeing Machines, making their name of a world stage and spreading the Canberra story as they do it.

“We are also looking forward to welcoming our first crop of direct international visitors into Canberra as well as the potential business opportunities opening Canberra to the world will bring. In particular, our first direct air-freight links into key international markets, with Singapore and Wellington, New Zealand our first.

“We will also be engaging with China, the US and Japan, recognising the importance of these countries to our economy, and we will look to maximise the opportunities the Asian century presents us here in Canberra.

“The International Engagement Strategy builds on our existing strategies in tourism, arts, trade and investment and the most recently launched international education strategy.”

For more information on the International Engagement Strategy, go to act.gov.au