Day 3 - Wednesday 22 March - Edith Cowan University, Joondalup Campus Jon Kelly - Mayor City of Wanneroo Closing Speech Acknowledgements Arthur Ikeda, program sponsor Dusan Mills, co-chairman of the idea project steering group (Advanced Land Resources) John Forbes, co-chairman of the idea project steering group (Ministry of Planning) Ladies and gentlemen Good afternoon I’m here today to officially close the workshop, and I would like to take this opportunity to share my thoughts on this exciting project. I believe from the feedback I have received from participants that this workshop has been invaluable, and has provided an excellent opportunity for representatives from many areas, including business, government, academia and the community to come together and share ideas. The city has an ongoing commitment to working with Tokyu and our community to ensure that this project is a success. Judging from the enthusiasm over the past few days – I'm sure it will be. The focus of the workshop has been on the development of an action plan for employment creation in St Andrews. This focus has, of course, been linked to other components including affordable housing, quality living environments and the provision of appropriate public and private infrastructure. The St Andrews project will certainly have a dramatic impact on the north-west corridor in many ways, but I consider that the employment the project will generate is particularly important. Creating employment in our region is a critical issue that must be addressed now – and the north of our city including Yanchep and St Andrews is of particular concern, with unemployment figures well in excess of the Perth average. The target of the idea project is to attract 50,000 jobs for the $12 billion St Andrews urban development project at Yanchep. 50,000 may sound like an ambitious target, but I believe that the alliances Tokyu Corporation has formed means that there is an outstanding team of people working together towards this goal. This workshop has given us an insight into similar urban developments that had employment creation strategies from around the world. I believe that this development, right here in Western Australia, has the potential to not only match, but exceed, the results achieved globally. I understand that from the outcome of the workshop, the next steps for the project will be to refine the vision, develop a memorandum of understanding between the key parties and to implement, where appropriate, some quick win employment projects to demonstrate how growth can be attracted to the area. I’m very pleased that the City of Wanneroo has had the opportunity to be part of this, and I would like to thank all of you for making it the success it has been. I look forward to a continuing association with all of you (over the next 25 years!).