International opportunities

Startups and innovation

Melbourne is home to a thriving startup scene across key innovation sectors such as med-tech, fin-tech and ag-tech. With more than 170 co-working spaces and 27 incubator/accelerators, startups are well supported to achieve their goals.

We encourage startups to grow and go global by supporting a number of programs designed to build knowledge and create important business connections in key overseas markets such as our Nexus startup program and our Open Innovation Competition.

Sports

Melbourne is globally recognised as a leader in sport, both in major sporting event management and community infrastructure and involvement. As well as providing benefits for public health and wellbeing and global branding, the sports industry generates significant economic benefits for Melbourne through tourism, employment and sports-related businesses.

We’re always looking for opportunities to promote Melbourne’s sports organisations and businesses on the international stage through our dynamic city-to-city connections.

Liveability

Melbourne held the title of World’s Most Liveable City for seven consecutive years (from 2011 to 2017), a reflection of our world-class infrastructure, healthcare and education credentials.

As a creative, highly innovative city, Melbourne is continually growing and changing. Melbourne’s architects, planners, engineers and landscape designers contribute to major projects locally and internationally. They help Melbourne and other cities plan for and manage the challenges and opportunities posed by housing density, safety, building and urban renewal.

Melbourne is respected worldwide for its knowledge and leadership in:

• sustainable design and development
• clean water management
• renewable energy.

Smart Cities

Melbourne’s vision as a smart city is to enhance the aspects that make us uniquely Melbourne, and to intelligently prepare for the changing needs of the community, the environment and the economy.

Our Smart City Team delivers a range of smart initiatives and tools, including our city sensors (IoT), Open Data platform, GIS, community innovation labs and open innovation competitions. We’ve also partnered with the University of Melbourne and RMIT University to create Melbourne Innovation Districts (MID), an initiative set to drive investment in the knowledge economy and help shape our city’s future. With Vision Australia we are also trialling beacon technology, which transmits location-specific information to smart phones, to help people with low vision navigate through the city.

Health economy

Melbourne is one of the leading health and life sciences centers in the world, with key strengths in stem cell research, cancer therapies, clinical trials, infectious disease research, aged care and medical devices.

Our role is to brand Melbourne as a world leader in health solutions, by:

• facilitating business to business connections
• fostering key partners
• delivering business development initiatives to support Melbourne businesses export their expertise, products or services.

Visitor economy

Melbourne has long been a popular destination among international visitors, providing great experiences through major events, food and wine, diverse multicultural communities, artistic and cultural experiences and scenic beauty.

In the year ending December 2019, 3.1 million international visitors visited Melbourne and contributed $8.8 billion to the Victorian economy.

China has been the leading source country of inbound visitors. Melbourne hosted 675,400 Chinese visitors in the same year and their total spend was $3.4 billion, accounting for 32.7% of total international expenditure.

In the City of Melbourne, we’re finding new ways to help Chinese visitors enjoy Melbourne through innovative initiatives.

Creative economy

Melbourne has a sophisticated arts and creative sector, ranging from world-class films, visual and performing arts, to publishing and design. As a cultural city, we have a global reputation for diversity, energy and creativity. Being one of the 180 cities in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), Melbourne shares the common objective of placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of our development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.

To support Melbourne’s creative economy, we:

• commit grants to artists and creatives to invest in new works and creative performances
• produce creative programs, festivals and events
• manage workshops and infrastructure for performances
• facilitate international engagement and export through global partnerships
• support knowledge acquisition and sharing through artists and creative practice exchange leveraged by city to city connections.