Bulletin

Issue: May 2004

News

REMPLAN 'tool' helps regional communities

What happens to a regional economy when an industry shuts down, government or business services are withdrawn, or a new industry moves in?

How is globalisation impacting on regional towns and cities or new government policies?

Until now, it has been difficult for communities and regional planners to accurately and quickly predict the economic impact of real or proposed changes and take action to meet those challenges.

La Trobe University's Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities (CSRC) at Bendigo is providing a helping hand.

The CSRC has developed an Australian first - a user-friendly economic modelling tool called REMPLAN that is giving communities information about their economies that has not been available at the regional level before.

Developed by CSRC Principal Research Fellow Ian Pinge, the REMPLAN software tool has been welcomed by regional communities with subscribers located across Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and the list is growing.

CSRC researcher Mr Matthew Nichol said a major strength of REMPLAN was its ability to provide the 'big picture' of a particular regional area.

'Planners can easily identify and anticipate the direct, or indirect, effects of change in terms of output, income, employment, imports and exports.

'The key to a sound economic development strategy is having the knowledge of where you are now and the ability to evaluate the impact of change.

'This knowledge gives planners and communities the power to act quickly in the face of change and to inform or gain support from State or Federal governments for community building projects.'

In Bendigo, REMPLAN was the catalyst for the City of Greater Bendigo to gain State Government funding to promote Lake Eppalock following a drop in tourism numbers due to the drought.

City of Greater Bendigo Business Development Officer Jim Dannock said data collected from tourism operators on visitor numbers and occupancies was entered into the economic model for the Greater Bendigo region using REMPLAN software.

'Using REMPLAN we were able to calculate the annual tourism value of the Lake to the region to be some $20 million. We were also able to calculate the impact of drought and loss of tourism numbers to the Lake to have cost the region some $13 million.

'This provided a very solid case to put to the State Government for funding which assisted to promote the Lake in the Melbourne area this summer highlighting it as a fishing and recreational attraction.'

Mr Dannock said the beauty of REMPLAN is the speed at which it can produce an economic impact assessment for a project and its cost effectiveness.

'This is the first time we've been able to produce this level of information in-house which has significant advantages in saving time, costs and increasing our responsiveness to issues.'

Mr Nichol said one of the aims of the CSRC's work was to demystify economic modelling by placing REMPLAN software on the desktops of regional economic development practitioners

REMPLAN is central to regional economic research conducted by the CSRC, a leader in the field of economic modelling in Australia.

Recently, the CSRC assisted the Australian Productivity Commission examining the impact of proposed tariff cuts on the textile, clothing and footwear industry.

'Information such as this can be life-changing for communities giving them a strong argument to push for or against change, gain government assistance, or plan to meet change.'

The CSRC has been established by La Trobe to assist regional development. It draws on the expertise and research skills of staff across the University, and provides consultancy services to organisations and individuals.

It has provided expertise on a variety of issues including ecological profiling, natural resource management, resource allocation, mining recycling, by-product reuse, infrastructure clustering, Commonwealth and State transport policy, irrigation, tourism, and community banking.

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