Introduction
The Smart State vision - building tomorrow's Queensland today
The Smart State vision is of a state where knowledge, creativity and innovation drive economic growth to improve prosperity and quality of life for all Queenslanders.
One of the essential elements of the Smart State Strategy is recognising the importance of education and skills development as key drivers of economic growth. The Smart State Strategy defines actions to ensure that the Queenslanders of today have the skills for the jobs of tomorrow.
It’s about making our big industries smarter and our smart industries bigger to ensure global competitiveness. It’s about helping businesses create new and better ways of working and producing, to drive economic growth and prosperity.
The Smart State vision means using new technologies and research in all parts of Queensland to ensure our environment and natural resources are cared for, so we can sustain the lifestyle Queensland is known for. It means using new ideas to support our people and communities.
The Smart State Strategy aims to place Queensland competitively on the world stage. It is a vision for Queensland to be prominent globally as a place of great inspiration and achievement. It is a strategy to train the best minds of the future, retain Queensland’s best and brightest, and attract the best minds from around the world.
The building blocks of the Smart State vision are strategies that foster a spirit of enterprise, build skills and establish new programs in our education, culture and industry. The strategies are designed to:
- capitalise on Queensland’s unique strengths
- build inspiring and rewarding connections and collaborations
- promote knowledge, creativity and innovation in all our endeavours.
2007 Progress Report
This report outlines the progress Queensland has made since 1998 in realising the Smart State vision. It shows the areas where we are moving forward and highlights challenges that must be met in shaping the future of Queensland.
In the following chapters, we review our state’s progress across the key areas of the Smart State Strategy:
- Education and skills for the future
- Research to create tomorrow’s ideas
- Innovation – making ideas count.
As our progress is built on strong economic foundations and a sustainable environment, the report includes indicators that support the solidity of this progress as we realise the Smart State vision. The report highlights, in particular, that Queensland has the fastest jobs growth in Australia, at more than double the rate of the rest of Australia during 2006-07. Further, Queensland enjoys the lowest unemployment rate since the 1970s — down from an average of 9.2 per cent in 1996-97 to 4 per cent in 2006-07.
Our measures also confirm Queensland’s transformation to a knowledge economy, and our increasing levels of education and skills. Key achievements include more Queensland students finishing Year 12 than the national average (78.5 per cent for Queensland compared with 74.7 per cent for Australia), and an increase in the percentage of employed persons aged 25 to 34 years attaining post-school qualifications, up from 60 per cent in 2002 to 66 per cent.
Queensland businesses are increasingly innovative and knowledge-intensive. Key achievements highlighted include strong growth in Queensland’s knowledge-intensive exports, with a growth of more than 82 per cent between 1999-00 and 2005-06, including more than 14.6 per cent growth in 2005-06. Queensland has considerably outstripped Australian growth for both periods.
Queensland’s research base is now among the best in the world. Queensland researchers are winning prestigious awards, for example Professor Ian Frazer was named Australian of the Year in 2006, and Professor John Mattick of the University of Queensland and Professor Terry Hughes from James Cook University each won a Eureka Prize for Science, in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Professor Mark Dodgson from the University of Queensland was awarded the 2007 Eureka Prize for leadership in business innovation for changing the way businesses around the world approach their research and development.
Further, while coming from a low base, Queensland’s business expenditure on research and development grew 191 per cent between 1998-99 and 2005-06.
Measuring Smart State progress
Where possible, the statistics and measures in this report indicate performace from the inception of the Smart State Strategy in 1998 to the present. However, they are sourced from a range of organisations such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Queensland Government agencies and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and as data is collected in different ways over different time periods, it is not always possible to provide a clear nine-year snapshot of growth.
Measures of research and innovation in particular present a challenge for all economies that are attempting to define and determine their growth. The Queensland Government will continue to monitor international developments in measuring innovation performance, and will continue to refine indicators of Queensland’s growth as the Smart State.
Towards the next stage of the Smart State
This report shows significant progress has been made towards reaching the Smart State vision. We are now in a position to compare ourselves, not only against other states, but against the most advanced and innovative economies of the world. This report raises a number of areas where new actions may be considered to build the Smart State.
Last reviewed 29 October 2007
