Premier Anna Bligh has suggested Townsville or another regional city could become a second capital city to help Queensland deal with population increase.

Ms Bligh used her opening address of a two-day growth summit in Brisbane to suggest the state would benefit from another capital.

She says one of the ideas the summit may consider is identifying a regional city like Townsville to become a rival for Brisbane in economic, cultural and social terms.

The Townsville Chamber of Commerce (TCC) has welcomed Ms Bligh’s suggestion the city could become the state’s second capital.

TCC president John Carey says Townsville is already considered by many as the capital of north Queensland and he would support it becoming official.

“If by that she means it would be competing with the things in a similar manner as Sydney and Melbourne, I don’t think there’s much desirability in that prospect,” he said.

“But if she means that it’s going to be a regional capital – which I think it is – then making that official isn’t going to hurt anyone.”

Townsville Mayor Les Tyrell also welcomes Ms Bligh’s idea.

“The people in Townsville have been referring to the city as the capital of north Queensland,” he said.

But Ms Bligh’s suggestion has been rejected by leading business group, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland (CCIQ).

CCIQ spokesman David Goodwin says opening up affordable land in regional centres is the best way to encourage people to move away from the south-east.

“Creating a second Brisbane is going to create a second lot of problems and it’s going to increase the size of government,” he said.

“It’ll increase the cost on the private sector and I think essentially you are looking at government solutions for what are essentially private sector problems.”

Ms Bligh has also called on banks to help developers meet the needs of a growing population.

She told the growth summit that multi-unit developments are needed in parts of Brisbane to deal with population increase, but she says banks tightened their lending during the global financial crisis.

“It’s time for all banks to start reassessing their activity in this area,” she said.

Ms Bligh has also flagged new laws to speed up the development of land in south-east Queensland.

She says the state is struggling to bring major sites in identified growth areas to market.

ms Bligh says the time it takes to get land to market in Victoria is up to two years shorter.

“It’s time I think to reconsider some parts of the approval process and the government architecture that oversees those processes,” she said.

“I challenge the summit here over the next two days to consider the practical ideas that could deliver that.

“If that requires an overhaul of government structures and processes, if it requires changes to legislation then so be it.”

- Reporting by Chris O’Brien, Penny Timms and Kim Lyell