The territory's skills shortage could improve within nine months following changes to the ACT's professional migration program.
The changes will allow the Government to rank occupations in order of need by closing applications for saturated industries and limiting others.
The ACT was the second jurisdiction after Victoria to implement its State Migration Plan. The changes aim to provide flexibility to nominate skilled migrants in a broader range of occupations than are currently offered on the Skilled Occupation List.
State Migration Plans are agreed with the federal minister. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the plans specified an overall number of applicants and in what occupations they could be nominated. The plans would improve the focus of the General Skilled Migration Program.
Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said, ''The ACT has .. the strongest economy of any jurisdiction in Australia, with extremely low unemployment. This has led to skills shortages in some areas and the State Migration Plan will complement ACT Government initiatives to help alleviate these shortages.''
Under the ACT's plan, three occupations are closed to skilled migrants - hotel and motel manager, journalist and economist - and 14 are classified as limited.
A spokesman for the minister said the program would make Canberra more attractive to prospective skilled migrants. ''The ACT's State Migration Plan received its first inquiries within three minutes of the media release being issued this afternoon,'' he said.
''The average processing time for visas is between six and nine months. Under the SMP, the ACT has been allocated 725 primary sponsorships [the applicants] and can take a total of 1740, which includes the dependants of the primary applicants.''
Source:http://www.canberratimes.com.au
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