NSW is the "head office of Australia - well support by the Queensland "lunch room" and South Australian call centre, according to NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet.
But if the "head office" is to keep its status, it will need to capitalise on the middle-class boom in Asia if it wants to remain the "premier state", the state treasurer says.
Mr Perrottet outlined a four-pillar plan in a speech to the Business Council of Australia on Wednesday that he believes will be key to state's future success.
In a written copy of his speech, he said the decade following the Olympics was notable "only for its mediocrity" and recalled the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics as one of the defining events for Sydney and NSW.
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"That should have been the launch pad for a decade of achievement. Instead, we got the opposite," he said.
Capitalising on the middle-class boom in Asia, particularly in China and India, will be vital.
"NSW is uniquely positioned because we are a state of millions in a region of billions," he says.
"The rise of the Asian middle class represents a once in a generation opportunity for a golden century for our state."
This, coupled with upskilling the state's workforce and cultivating key industries like fintech and agriculture, will mean NSW will retain its status as the "premier state".
"Our vision is for NSW to be Australia's gateway to the world - and the world's gateway to the rest of Australia," he says.
In the speech, Mr Perrottet described NSW as the "head office" of Australia, while likening South Australia to a call centre, Victoria as the maintenance department and Queensland the lunch room.
He also announced the development of an economic plan for NSW to 2050, which will be given to the government in 2019, by the state's chief economist Stephen Walters.
