Dubbo mayor Ben Shields starts Economic Recovery Taskforce

Cr Shields is pushing for the Dubbo region to be the one that "bounces back the fastest" from the economic impact of coronavirus.

As part of that plan, Cr Shields has developed the Economic Recovery Taskforce, which will meet once a week with council to shape the city's next steps.

His plan was approved at Monday night's council meeting.

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Council believes about 1450 jobs have already been affected from closures due to COVID-19. There are another 700 likely to be impacted in the coming months.

It equates to 10 per cent of the workforce in the local government area.

"There's no doubt about it, we're going to see some hard times," Cr Shields said.

"We know that this COVID-19 pandemic has closed a lot of businesses, it has put a lot of people out of work, it'a also meant there's a lack of confidence not just in Australia but right across the western world."

The mayor said there were experts across the region who would be able to help the city meet his economic challenge.

"This is something that I believe is quite urgent. While the pandemic is still going on, work needs to be done now to start planning for the coming years," he said.

"It's only by doing work now that we're actually going to be able to keep our economy ticking along quite well."

Cr Shields said nationally, spending was down about 20 per cent with food, accommodation and retail stores hit the worst.

Councillor Greg Mohr said the region had been hit hard, first by drought and now the coronavirus.

But he said now the heavens had opened and brought some rain, the city could start recovering to be one of the strongest in the country.

The taskforce will be comprised of representatives from:

• Dubbo Chamber of Commerce
• Wellington Business Chamber
• Destination Outback and Country
• Regional Development Australia
• Taronga Western Plains Zoo
• real estate sector
• education sector
• Dubbo Regional Council

The Economic Recovery Taskforce will meet once a week for the next six to eight weeks.

It will develop objectives to be implemented by council.