YESTERDAY’S announcement that Ballarat is included in the next round of the National Broadband Network rollout is a significant fillip for our city.While there is much political debate about the large expense surrounding the project, undoubtedly this investment will provide a head start for Ballarat industry, business and service providers to take advantage of the opportunities that this investment in nation-building infrastructure will provide.The announcement confirms that almost 9000 premises in central Ballarat will receive the fibre-optic network which will deliver high speed connectivity.Given the massive scale of the project, and the long-term rollout process, that Ballarat has been chosen to receive the network before other regional centres in Victoria provides not only a recognition of the work of those advocating locally for the network but also an opportunity to sell our city as a leader in new-world technologies and business development.The city’s reputation as a centre for information technology jobs and business has grown significantly in the past 10 years, primarily through attracting business in this field to establish in Ballarat. The move of IBM and the emergency services communications facility, among others, are examples in the past decade of our city attracting new jobs in this sector. The efforts of our health services and traditional industries to utilise high-tech solutions to old problems has also been well recognised.Now we have been presented with the ability to capitalise on the hard work which has been done in these areas.The changing way of the world has opened up great opportunities in the fields of retail, tourism, finance and community development. These are fields where a competitive advantage is vital to maintaining a successful operation and, in turn, jobs for local residents.While there remain queries over the cost of the NBN to the nation, and to end users, it is clear that our city, and our residents, are better positioned to be part of this phase of the rollout as opposed to those who might be waiting months, or years, for their chance.Simplistically, we can use yesterday’s announcement as the impetus to further promote our city as a place of innovation, growth and prosperity. There’s plenty of our regional competitors who would like to say the same.