"Improving the state's roads is the central infrastructure priority for the Queensland government in next week's budget if it is to improve the productivity of Queensland industry and help it manage through the economic downturn," said Ai Group Queensland director, Chris Rodwell as he released a major industry survey detailing the state's infrastructure issues.

When releasing the survey on June 9, Rodwell said that there has been a reprioritisation of infrastructure needs in the past year as well as strong progress made by the government in delivering the "ambitious" infrastructure plans. He also said that improved satisfaction levels across most key areas of infrastructure in the past 12 months are a gauge of "how much improved the effort on infrastructure is in Queensland."

The survey indicated a need for continued investment at all levels of government, especially in state and national Highways and local roads where more than one-third of respondents identified state and national highways (19.2 per cent) and local roads infrastructure (15.4 per cent) as the dominant infrastructure issues containing business growth.

Other key findings include:

• Across most infrastructure areas, Queensland companies expressed a general increase in satisfaction levels over the past 12 months
• More than 50 per cent of the industry expressed dissatisfaction in broadband infrastructure
• Compared with businesses in NSW and Victoria, Queensland companies are more likely to express satisfaction with water infrastructure and electricity and gas supply, and less likely to be satisfied with broadband infrastructure.

The survey was conducted in late March 2009, and was based on 214 companies predominantly in the manufacturing, construction and services-related sectors. There were 337 respondents from NSW and Victoria.