NSW’s first Trade Statement, released in October 2021, sets out our vision for economic growth and prosperity.
By supporting NSW businesses to look to new opportunities overseas and to sell to new international customers — we will grow jobs, support our industries, and strengthen our economy.
Today, exports from NSW are valued at $96 billion and make up 15% of our state economy. Exports also support 1 in 5 jobs across Australia.
Businesses who export are more resilient, more innovative, employ more people, and pay higher wages. These benefits from trade all flow on to the broader economy.
Despite the challenges of the past few years and COVID-19's impact on global trade patterns, the demand for NSW products and services continues to grow. Boosting our exports is an important part of NSW’s economic recovery strategy and future prosperity.
Targets
The Statement sets an ambitious target to double the value of NSW’s exports from $96 billion to $200 billion by 2031.
The Statement also outlines the state’s plan to expand the existing NSW export profile by delivering against 2 key goals as the first step towards this ten-year target:
- Increase exports as a percentage of NSW’s economy from 15 to 18 per cent, to reach $130 billion, by 2024.
- Grow and diversify NSW’s exports by:
- increasing the number of exporting businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
- facilitating exports of a more diverse range of goods, services and technologies, reflecting the breadth
and depth of NSW's industrial and technical capabilities - growing exports in established markets and increasing the number of overseas markets that we export to
- building new pathways for how we export to reach a global customer base.
Strategies
To achieve these targets, the NSW Government will focus on 5 key strategies:
- facilitate new export growth opportunities
- help SMEs to compete internationally
- promote NSW as a world-leading knowledge economy
- harness NSW's competitive advantages
- strength international partnerships at all levels.
Action
The Statement provides 30 actions for how the NSW Government will invest locally to further strengthen NSW's position as Australia’s most globally connected and successful economy.
To ensure we are continuously improving our support to businesses and the state’s export performance, the NSW Government will monitor and report against the actions.
We will ensure our policies, programs and partnerships are responsive to new and emerging challenges and opportunities over the coming years.
The NSW Government will harness NSW’s strengths in industry, its regions and its people to ensure that communities across NSW benefit from the jobs and business opportunities generated by trade.