The ACT Government is to be applauded for obtaining its joint venture agreement with the computer company Unisys. The agreement is expected to create about 1000 jobs in the ACT.
Attracting Unisys could not have happened at a more opportune time with the cuts to the Federal Public Service. These have thrown up some opportunities with government contracting out functions, but the ACT Government needed to rise the challenge to generate some new industry. It has been clear for some time (though some have not wanted to admit it) that the construction and land-development business was not the answer. Canberra’s private sector has to go beyond offices and dwelling and picking up easy bucks on increasing land values. Further, tourism, though important, was never going to be a sustainable base for the territory’s private sector. It can be a fickle master rather than a profitable servant.
So it is appropriate that the ACT Government has turned to the computing industry. Here, Canberra has a lot to offer. It has a highly educated workforce and many looking for work. So wages are competitive, compared to California or Japan. It has an excellent natural and urban environment … clean air and water, good infrastructure, good schools, low crime and cheap land. In short it is ideal to attract this sort of industry.
Unisys’s main initial project will be preparing computers for the change to the millennium because since the early days of computing the year field has only been two digits and much re-programming is needed to enter the necessary four-digit field to cope with the change. But once set up, more projects will follow.