A CRISIS meeting to work out solutions to combat Canberra's dubious title as Australia's business failure capital is to be held within weeks.
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Forty-two ACT businesses became insolvent in the past quarter, 40 per cent more than the same period last year, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
ACT and Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Andrew Blyth said his organisation would hold a meeting within three weeks where business owners could suggest how local trade be increased.
''This summit will provide an opportunity for business to tell us first-hand their experiences of the situation and assist the chamber in developing policy options to take to the ACT government.''
Phone calls to the chamber to ask about downsizing and paying out redundant workers have increased six-fold this year, compared with 2012.
There have been 45 calls already this year.
''The ACT budget allocates $10 million to business and industry development - that is 0.02 per cent of the budget,'' Mr Blyth said.
''Despite the ACT recording an unemployment figure of 3.7 per cent, this number hides the fact that for the [financial year] 2012-13, full-time employment has dropped, with female unemployment rising from 3.2 per cent to 3.9 per cent.
''I've spoken to one Canberra restaurant which said it had four customers last Saturday night.''
Quentin Webster, editor of the Manuka Business Association's newsletter, said retailers in the popular inner-south location were anecdotally reported to be experiencing the worst June trade in memory.
A spokesman for ACT Economic Development Minister Andrew Barr said even though the territory had the worst business survival rate in Australia, it was not significantly lower than the average. Of the 24,825 businesses operating at the end of 2007-08, 59 per cent were still operating at the end of 2011-12. Nationally, the survival rate over the same period was 61.8 per cent.
''But that's not necessarily the whole story - over the same period, the total number of businesses operating in the ACT grew by 3.2 per cent, whereas nationally, the growth rate was only 2.9 per cent,'' the spokesman said.
The summit meeting will be a breakfast at the Ainslie Football Club, with the date yet to be confirmed.