The Small Business Innovation & Entrepreneurship Fund is a significant investment by Council further emphasising our focus on building a diverse and strong knowledge economy.

The program has been designed to focus on two groups:

Wyndham residents seeking to start new enterprises that are characterised by innovation and new ways of thinking

Existing businesses that have new and innovative ideas to grow their existing businesses and adapt to the changing economy

The program has been designed to enable innovation and entrepreneurship capacity in Wyndham City. It will play an important role in the ongoing development and growth of the City’s small business and start-up ecosystem as businesses will need to adapt to new ways of doing business as never before, during and after this pandemic.

I’m always passionate about how we can work smarter and support small innovative businesses and entrepreneurs. We have been working hard for something like this since the start of this term. And I’m so pleased and proud to see this program is finally in front of us tonight.

If this is adopted tonight, and with this program in place, it will help Wyndham to become a destination for innovative businesses.

I congratulate everyone involved in this work, especially Cr Villagonzalo and the economic development team. Well done.