Are you a business operator in the Wollongong Local Government Area looking to improve our supportive business environment? Here’s your opportunity to impact future plans.
Wollongong City Council’s Economic Development team invites local business operators to complete the 2024 Wollongong Business Survey, open until Monday 16 September 2024.
Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said supporting local business is a key priority for Council.
“The survey will help us understand current business operations within Wollongong to inform the review of the Council’s Economic Development Strategy 2019-2029 which has approached its 5-year mid-point,” said Cr Bradbery.
Wollongong has seen unprecedented jobs growth since the adoption of the Economic Development strategy, creating 10,000 additional jobs in the last 5 years, which is double the amount vs the previous decade.
“In 2022, businesses told us they wanted procurement support and promotion to attract investment to the region,” said Cr Bradbery.
“In response, we ran a successful ‘Doing Business with Council’ procurement event in May 2023. We’ve also been busy promoting the region’s capabilities to attract new investment interest through the Invest Wollongong partnership with NSW Government and the University of Wollongong. “
Wollongong City Council General Manager Greg Doyle said this year’s survey will build on learnings gathered in the 2022 and 2018 iterations.
“Two years on from the last survey, we understand business is operating in a more challenging macroeconomic environment with the impact of cost-of-living pressures and rising interest rates,” said Mr Doyle.
“This is an opportunity for Council to gauge local business sentiment and update our understanding of the specific business challenges.”
Information collected through the survey will also inform Council’s new Community Strategic Plan by looking ahead at future business and investment opportunities for Wollongong over the next 10 years.
“We have had impressive participation rates of 200-300 businesses per survey, and we hope to see similar, if not better participation rates this year, so we can paint a more accurate picture of the current priorities of our local business community,” said Mr Doyle.
Operators of Wollongong based businesses large and small are encouraged to complete the survey at before Monday 16 September 2024. This survey should take approximately 10 minutes to complete, and a summary of the data will be shared with the public.
