As the Federal Government gets ready to launch the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), which will administer its $5 billion loan scheme to stimulate northern development, the NT state government has opened up its skills list taking the number of occupations that the state government will sponsor for permanent (sc190) and temporary (sc489) visas to over 170 occupations.
Speaking about the NAIF initiatives, Resources, Energy and Northern Australia Minister Josh Fryberg, these changes will help fuel greater economic growth and higher levels of immigration in the NT.
“With 40% of Australia’s land mass but only around 5% of our population, the potential for economic growth in our north is enormous,” said Frydenberg adding, “The NAIF will support this growth and complement private sector investment.”
Cairns was narrowly chosen over Sydney as the headquarters for the NAIF which expects operations to start in July. The ABC reports several major projects have already been pitched to access the loan which is now over-subscribed. According to the eligibility criteria, the NAIF loans must be used to finance major economic projects, like airports, ports, roads, rail, energy, water and communications infrastructure.
The NT Occupation list which covers the entire territory including Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs, Katherine and Nhulunbuy was updated on 14th April 2016 with 63 new occupations added, and 24 removed.
For full state occupation list and more information on NT state nomination follow this link.