AUSTRALIA – New South Wales opposition leader Barry O'Farrell has declared that if elected, he wants boost the Sydney’s confidence with a new convention and exhibition centre.
O’Farrell, speaking at an Infrastructure Partnerships Australia lunch in Sydney, said that he wanted to be known as the ”infrastructure premier”, and if elected in March that his coalition planned to build a AU$700m (US$704) convention, hotel and entertainment complex in Sydney's Darling Harbour to attract major events to the city.
"We hosted the best ever Olympics," said O'Farrell, adding that Sydney was once regarded alongside New York and Paris as a global city. "But looking over the decade since, we are all entitled to say: so what happened?”
The proposed Darling Harbour development, which would be delivered under a Public Private Partnership (PPP), follows recommendations in a report by a coalition-commissioned independent industry panel, which found NSW loses up to 220 business events a year due to outdated facilities.
Sydney faces stiff competition from both Melbourne and Brisbane for exhibition and convention business.
The Sydney-based convention bureau BESydney recently welcomed the announcement by the New South Wales State Government to commit to the expansion of convention space in the city’s Darling Harbour district.
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