Expo 2017 push for Sydney

Sydney Harbour.

© istockphoto.com/Tim Starkey

THE NSW government is being urged to bid for the 2017 International Expo to help drive development and enhance Sydney's reputation on the global stage.

Former Sydney Olympics and Paralympics Minister Michael Knight says hosting the expo would be a coup for the state and its capital city, and he's named Glebe Island as a possible location.

"The Expo would become a three-month interstate and international promotion of Sydney," he said on Wednesday.

Mr Knight, addressing the 10 Years Since the Olympics symposium hosted by the Tourism and Transport Forum in Sydney, said the expo would draw international and domestic visitors, creating jobs and state-wide economic benefits.

He said it would also provide opportunities to develop new state-of-the-art convention and exhibition facilities - tourism infrastructure he believes is seriously lacking, but which could potentially make Sydney a leader in the field.

"The White Bay/Glebe Island complex gradually being wound down by the Sydney Ports Corporation is one obvious location," he said.

"This site would be large enough to host an international expo and close enough to the CBD to provide a very attractive location for ongoing convention and exhibition facilities."

Mr Knight said a development at Glebe would also open up the possibility of future redevelopment of Darling Harbour for residential, commercial and recreational activities.

And ten years on, many outside of Australia still regard Sydney as the "best ever" Olympic and Paralympic Games, he said.

"This is a great tribute to the tens of thousands of people who worked so hard to deliver the Games and to the beauty of Sydney and its surrounds," he told the audience.

"It is also a tribute to the organisational skill and ingenuity of Australians.

"Above all, it is a tribute to the warm and generous nature of Australians generally and the tremendous spirit with which they welcomed the world to Sydney in September and October 2000."