By PETER CATON

URGENT planning is needed to create jobs on the Tweed because the economy is not keeping pace with population growth.

That is the warning from the council-funded Tweed Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) following a sophisticated computer study on the state of the Tweed economy.

TEDC chief executive Tom Senti met with Tweed Shire Council administrator Lucy Turnbull last week to call for urgent planning action to attract more jobs and in-dustry to the Tweed.

Mrs Turnbull agrees the Tweed has a problem, but says that is

often the case in areas of high population growth.

Yesterday Mr Senti said the Tweed District was set to be home to an anticipated extra 120,000 people by 2031 ? 40,000 more than now ? and desperately needed better planning to attract industry.

Currently 88 per cent of jobs are involved in service industries, 8.7 per cent in manufacturing and 3.2 per cent in primary industry and agriculture.

"We are not actually creating anything," Mr Senti warned.

"In terms of have a major industry, we really don't have one. We are a service-based economy."

The TEDC study found the Tweed economy "does not appear to have benefited from the strong economic growth in south-east Queensland, apart from population inflows."

It concluded: "This population growth need not translate into

economic activity.

"Rather than economic growth being generated through local initiatives, it is largely a result of being carried along by state and national growth."

Mrs Turnbull said the creation of new business often lagged behind high levels of population growth.

"However, local government does have an important role to play in creating the environment in which businesses can establish and grow," she said.

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