As the waters recede following the devastating floods in the Greater Brisbane region, there's a sense of optimism, resilience and camaraderie in the Brisbane business community, with many businesses resuming operations, others in recovery and those unaffected reaching out to those less fortunate.
Brisbane has received overwhelming support from local, state and federal governments in Australia as well as international support. Early signs of recovery are strong as Brisbane returns to the business of being Australia's new world city.
Our political leaders are encouraging us all to rebuild even better and Brisbane Marketing is seeking to seize the opportunity for growth and improvement where it can be achieved.
As the city's economic development agency, the Brisbane Marketing team is here to offer our support and extend our sympathies to friends and families of residents and the business community, who have suffered during this challenging time.
We in turn would like to thank you for all the messages of goodwill we have received - we really appreciate them. While a few of our staff have suffered some significant property damage, we at Brisbane Marketing are supporting our team whilst we return to the task at hand and strategic planning is underway including:
* Contributing to the development of Brisbane City Council's 90-day Economic Recovery plan for our great city;
* Actively working with the Forward Planning Groups of both local and state government disaster co-ordination units with respect to immediate and medium term economic recovery strategies;
* Working closely with our members, partners, industry and the Greater Brisbane business community to assess the impact on affected areas;
* Positioning Brisbane, Australia's new world city locally, nationally and internationally, highlighting our industry strengths, capabilities and our future prosperity.
If you would like to help those personally affected by the floods please visit www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html to donate.
For those businesses that have been affected, please continue to provide us with status updates and let us know how we can support you.
We look forward to working closely and will continue to provide you with regular updates.
Yours sincerely
John Aitken
Chief Executive Officer
