Release of summary of economic projections: 'The Road to 2001'

5/7/96

Premier Richard Court today released a summary of economic projections entitled 'The Road to 2001', which predicts that Western Australians will enjoy the highest living standards in Australia based on real per capita income, which will rise to over $32,000 by the year 2001.

"According to the economic projections prepared by State Treasury, Western Australians will enjoy, over the next five years, the strongest period of sustained economic prosperity in the State's recent history," Mr Court said.

The Premier said he intended to present the projections to business leaders during his two-week visit to Japan and Korea, which are WA's two largest export destinations.

"During my two-week visit to Japan and Korea, I will be showing the projections to major investors to emphasise the excellent economic prospects this State will enjoy over the next five years," he said.

"According to the projections, WA's share of national exports will rise to 28.8 per cent over the next five years.

"Business investment will also accelerate to an annual rate of $11.4 billion in 2001, which is nearly double the rate of investment occurring when the Coalition took office in 1993.

"This major investment and export growth will also see annual real per capita income of Western Australians rise by more than $5,000 over the next five years to an annual rate of $32,750 in 2001, compared with a national rate of around $26,000.

"WA's share of national production is also set to rise to 12.2 per cent over the next five years and annual economic growth will be running at an average rate of 5.25 per cent, compared with an average rate of 3.25 for the national economy.

"This strong economic activity will have major benefits for all Western Australians.

"It is anticipated that the number of people employed in WA will rise to 944,300 over the next five years, which represents a rise of nearly 200,000 since 1992-1993.

"The surge in economic prosperity will be driven by a new generation of value-adding industries which will further develop and broaden our export base.

"Iron ore is a prime example of this shift to downstream processing - by the year 2001 WA will be adding value to nearly 20 per cent of our iron ore production.

"This value-adding will be boosted by a major rise in WA's natural gas and LNG production which will rise to over 250,000 million cubic metres per year by 2001."