City Economy Strategy

Project Overview

Project update - May 2026

The City Economy Strategy 2026-2036, was adopted by Council on 11 May 2026. Click here to view the adopted Strategy.


Background

Economic development in Parramatta is about more than jobs growth - it’s about ensuring prosperity reaches our whole community and improves quality of life for all.

The Draft City Economy Strategy (the Strategy) aimed to set the vision for Parramatta to become a City ready for the future, able to harness economic opportunities, and share the benefits of its success with its community.

  • The Strategy builds on Parramatta 2050, Council’s long-term Global City vision, to guide the City’s transformation. Parramatta 2050 sets out several Game Changers including “Western Sydney’s Jobs Engine” that define how over the next 25 years Parramatta will become a global city.
  • This vision includes an ambitious goal of 150,000 new jobs across the City by 2050, and the Draft City Economy Strategy responds directly to this goal.
  • Our commitment extends beyond the Parramatta City Centre to encompass our diverse neighbourhoods, communities, and industries, as we know these are all essential to sustaining our collective prosperity.

This Draft Strategy included three priority areas - Productivity, Place and People.


Productivity

Our City’s economy is strong, resilient, and globally-focused.

Place

Our City’s built fabric supports new economic opportunities.

People

Our City’s businesses and workers are ready for the future.

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Community engagement

Council consulted with the community for a period of 6 weeks from Wednesday 28 January to Wednesday 11 March 2026.

There were 7,484 views of the project page and 444 strategy downloads.

Five formal submissions were received from key stakeholder organisations. The submissions were generally supportive and affirmed a commitment by the stakeholders to continue working with Council to achieve the objectives of the City Economy Strategy.

In total nine online submissions from the community were received. All online submissions received indicated ‘Yes’ or ‘Yes to an extent’ in support of the City Economy Strategy’s vision, priorities and actions.

Community submissions included suggestions such as:

  • Boosting local economic activities in centres outside the CBD, particularly North Rocks and Epping.
  • Growing opportunities for recreational, sporting and cultural venues.
  • Setting time-based jobs targets (in addition to spatial targets) and considering impact of catalytic projects on targets.
  • Recommend bringing forward action relating to filling vacant shopfronts.
  • Complementing relative strengths and activities in neighbouring LGAs, thereby maximising opportunities in all parts of Parramatta LGA.

Organisational submissions affirmed Council's vision and jobs target, welcomed further collaboration and partnership opportunities, highlighted Parramatta's role as an education and innovation hub, and recommended bringing forward certain actions to fill vacant shopfronts, understand local business requirements and strengthen the start-up ecosystem. You can access the full engagement report in the Council business papers here Item 12.3.


Next steps

Council adopted the City Economy Strategy on 11 May 2026. View the Strategy here or visit Council's main website HERE.


Who can I contact for further information?

You can call Council on 02 9806 5050 during business hours (Monday to Friday: 8:30am to 4:30pm) and speak to the City Futures Team.

Image credit: Destination NSW

Frequently asked questions