Future-Proofing the WA Economy: A roadmap to industrial diversification and regional growth

Steven Bond-Smith, Alfred Dockery, Alan Duncan, Daniel Kiely and Silvia Salazar

No FI04, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Report series from Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School

Abstract: Future-Proofing the WA Economy is the fourth report in the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre’s Focus on Industry report series. The report recommends the implementation of a ‘smart specialisation’ approach to regional diversification, to ensure that new development opportunities build on existing regional capabilities and capitalise on local conditions and networks. Of course, this doesn’t mean taking our ‘foot off the gas’ in the parts of the economy that are going well. A fundamental element of smart specialisation is to support those industries that the regions are leading in. But the smart specialisation policy is useful to encourage diversification into new industries that build on WA’s existing advantages. This report contributes an important new evidence base to inform the State’s diversification strategy, based on a data-driven approach to identify current industry strengths and emerging opportunities in each of WA’s ten regions. The report puts forward a series of recommendations to support the State’s diversification strategies. In doing so, our hope is that more economic development opportunities in Western Australia will be seized rather than lost.

Keywords: Western Australia; WA economy; smart specialisation; industry diversification; industry concentration; regional economic growth; regional development; industry relatedness; economic complexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O47 R11 R23 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 196 pages
Date: 2019-08
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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