Digital technologies and future industries
Our track record of pioneering innovation and technical expertise supported by vast land, natural resources and strategic location have built our reputation as an appealing destination for digital technologies and future industries.
Current activities
The Northern Territory is set to become northern Australia’s most advanced digital economy and Australia’s digital gateway to Asia and beyond.
Positioned closer to key Asian markets than any other part of Australia, the Northern Territory is uniquely equipped to forge strong economic, cultural, and strategic connections with the vibrant nations to our north and markets to the south.
Darwin, the Northern Territory’s capital city, is located within 50 milliseconds of more than 500 million people. New subsea cables from Darwin will provide high speed network capacity to key locations including Singapore, Indonesia, and United States. These connections will provide the lowest latency to Singapore from any other Australian capital city, offering speeds 2.4 times faster than from Sydney and 1.2 times faster than from Perth.
In addition, the Northern Territory provides a distinctive advantage for testing, commercialising and scaling innovation. Success stories include SPEE3D in advanced manufacturing, Salty Games and True Blue Productions in interactive digital entertainment, and Liandra Swim in the creative economy.
The recent launch of the Angel Investment Network in the region promises to further stimulate entrepreneurship, create jobs, retain local talent and foster economic development with neighbouring nations by providing crucial early-stage funding and expertise to start-ups.
Northern Territory advantages
- Space to test: The Northern Territory is uniquely positioned as a premier test bedding destination (digital and physical) ideal for developing, validating and commercialising innovations for global markets. Our world-class test bed operations such as the Northern Australia Centre for Autonomous Systems drone test flight facility, span multiple sectors, including clean energy transition, remote health and medical services delivery as well as agriculture.
- Digital economy: The Northern Territory Government is focused on growing the digital economy in the Northern Territory and aspiring to be Australia’s next digital hub. We played a key role in the opening of the NEXTDC D1 data centre in August 2024 and are accelerating multiple digital infrastructure projects to boost connectivity with Southeast Asia.
- Innovation: Our innovation ecosystem is young and rapidly growing with established networks in the region including drones, women, youth, Aboriginal and social sectors. These active networks bring together government, industry, academia and not-for-profits for growth in innovation.
- Talent: With low latency, proximity to Asia and a thriving local eSports and game development industry, the Northern Territory is an attractive destination for emerging talent.
