Business & economy

Why we’re doing this

Sydney is home to Australia’s largest local economy. Before the pandemic it generated more than $138 billion a year (2019). As Australia’s global gateway our economy plays a significant role in supporting and influencing economies far beyond our geographic boundary. It is important our economy is thriving and ready to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future.

The City of Sydney is responsible for strengthening our local economy through strategically targeted economic development to ensure Sydney is ready for the future.

Under our 10-year economic development strategy published in 2013, we’ve actively supported businesses, workers, residents, students, visitors, investors and other participants in our local economy.

In the decade before the pandemic, the city’s gross regional product (GRP) increased by 65.2%, the number of local jobs grew by 28.5% to around 519,000, and the number of businesses rose by 23.9% to more than 24,000. This success was built on our comparative advantages in many key areas.

Since the pandemic the economic environment of the city has been changing rapidly.  While our local economy continues to recover, businesses adapt to the new normal and explore new growth opportunities, we are preparing a new economic development strategy. The new strategy will help the city to transition to a strong and resilient economy.

We’ve released a discussion paper to support our preparation of the next economic development strategy.  This strategy will strongly align with our long-term vision set in our community strategic plan.

We invite your feedback on the discussion paper.