• opening up opportunities for future infrastructure projects for potential delivery by private financing;
• setting out the Government's priorities for infrastructure in a State Infrastructure Strategic Plan (SISP), which will be updated and published annually; and
• establishing a NSW Infrastructure Council, comprising key Ministers and invited chief executives of private sector organisations representative of those involved in the provision of infrastructure.

Working with Government requires the Infrastructure Coordination Unit (ICU) of Premier's Department to provide a secretariat role for the NSW Infrastructure Council and to produce the SISP.

The SISP will be drawn from information provided in Capital Investment Strategic Plans that along with Asset Maintenance Plans and Disposal Plans, form part of an agency's Asset Strategy. The requirements for these plans and strategies are found in the Government's recently released guidelines on total asset management, TAM 2000 (http://www.gamc.nsw.gov.au/TAM2000/). These plans are now required to be submitted to Treasury in support of budget enhancement requests, Statements of Corporate Intent and Statements of Financial Performance. It is through this process that the ICU will access the Capital Investment Strategic Plans.

The SISP will include a ten year projection of projects, service requirements and expected future regional growth identified in Capital Investment Strategic Plans from agencies with major project proposals. Accordingly the SISP will provide a tool to allow the:

• public to identify the proposed method of delivering Government services and related infrastructure in New South Wales;
• private sector to gauge future major investment proposals and in particular identify potential opportunities for private public partnerships (PPPs) and privately financed projects (PFPs); and
• government to determine the consistency of unsolicited private sector proposals for infrastructure projects with the SISP.

The SISP will make a valuable contribution towards strategic capital investment planning in New South Wales and is a clear demonstration of responsible government.

To prepare the SISP, the ICU will need to work closely with both General Government and Public Trading Enterprises, including State Owned Corporations (SOCs). While acknowledging the independence and rights of the SOCs I seek their support in this matter and the full cooperation of all State agencies.

Bob Carr

Premier