Brisbane could one day be the aerospace capital of the Asia-Pacific. The State Government says with business help, their new development plan, will create thousands of jobs.

Jacob Miley reports.

TRANSCRIPT

Brisbane already has an aviation centre of excellence, but now the government wants to take it to another level.

Anthony Lynham, Minister for State Development: “The aeronautical sector in Queensland is vital, it is important and I want it to grow.”

The minister today inspected one of the MHR-90 military helicopters being assembled at at Eagle Farm with state of the art technology.

Malcolm Benfer, Airbus Helicopters: “This will allow us to look at the strategy from the state government and how they can support us further and how we can further develop and be competitive against overseas organisations in the aerospace industry.”

With the growing travel demands from Asian countries it is estimated 35,000 new aircraft will be needed over the next 20 years.

Queensland is looking to capitalise on this global growth.

The minister says the 10-year plan aims to boost employment across the state, with the industry already established in several regional centres.

The aerospace sector already provides 4500 jobs in aircraft component manufacturing and repair services, and generated around $600 million to the state economy over the last financial year.

Anthony Lynham, Minister for State Development: “The growth in Queensland is astronautical engineering, biotechnology, biofutures; that’s where the new Queensland economy will come from.”

The consultation period of the proposal will run for the next three weeks.

Jacob Miley, QUT News.