Government procurement processes in the ACT will be reformed in a bid to boost productivity, transport and health minister Meegan Fitzharris has told a national economic forum.
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At the National Press Club on Thursday, Ms Fitzharris said the new procurement process would be "a bit like Access Canberra at the front end".
"The amount of goods and services the ACT government procures from Canberra businesses is in the hundreds of millions of dollars each year so the more efficiently and innovatively we do that, the more work we can get out there to Canberra businesses," Ms Fitzharris said.
"We've had feedback particularly from small-to-medium businesses about how government's processes can be more streamlined, how to reduce red tape, and stop firms having to go between different departments. We want to make it easy for you to interact with the ACT government."
Ms Fitzharris was outlining the Barr government's strategy on boosting productivity in the territory at the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia, as the chief minister is in Darwin.
The ACT government will also appoint a defence advisory board in coming weeks to capture more of the federal government's $17 billion spend on the industry, Ms Fitzharris said.
"Defence already contributes $3.1 billion per annum to Canberra's economy and employs just over 16,000 people," Ms Fitzharris said.
"The ACT government is committed to growing the sector even further ... and shortly we've be announcing a high-level defence industry advisory board to ensure that our defence activities are targeted to areas that will result in maximum benefit to Canberra's economy and Canberra's institutions."
