A NSW Government website

Global talent to turbocharge NSW economy

Creative, innovative and highly-skilled workers will be an important part of the state’s post-pandemic economic success, with new research by the NSW Innovation and Productivity Council (IPC) highlighting the importance of ‘human capital’.

Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology Alister Henskens said the competition for talent was intensifying and the Global Talent Wars: Learning from locations that attract the best report would inform the NSW Government’s efforts to lure world-leading expertise to NSW.

“NSW has proven it can rival New York, London and Silicon Valley when it comes to attracting the world’s leading tech innovators, but now we want to ramp up the battle to secure the best and brightest from abroad,” Mr Henskens said.

“There is unprecedented level of research and development being undertaken in NSW, which is unlocking enormous opportunities in industries like quantum computing, biomedical research and software engineering.

“We need highly-skilled people with world-leading expertise to accelerate the growth of new and emerging industries, which will boost our economy and drive jobs for the people of NSW long into the future.”

Australia is already a top performer when it comes to attracting skilled migrants, receiving 3 per cent of global migration every year despite making up just 0.3 per cent of the world’s population.

The report recommends better planning and promotion of NSW as a destination for global talent, with the NSW Government developing a comprehensive implementation plan for the report’s recommendations.

IPC Chair Neville Stevens AO said the report recognised the economic importance of global talent and the need to develop ‘human capital’.

“We need to ensure our policies and programs not only support the development of home-grown talent, but also attract and retain valuable international skills and experience as we compete with other countries,” Mr Stevens said.

More information about the report and the NSW Government’s implementation plan is available online

More news from Investment NSW

Adopting emerging technologies could boost Gross State Product (GSP) by an additional 11.8 per cent to 2035, which is equivalent to $11,600 per person or $27,400 a household.
The state’s innovation precincts will help drive NSW’s future economic strength and attracting and supporting world-class anchor tenants is critical to growing these powerful ecosystems, according to new research by the NSW Innovation and Productivity Council (IPC).
NSW has Australia’s strongest startup ecosystem, world-leading universities and an unparalleled opportunity to attract major new investment, according to the latest NSW Innovation and Productivity Scorecard.