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• 2003-2007

• Strategy and Priorities

• Archive

• 2003-2007

• Leadership
• International Linkages
• Innovation
• Regulatory Environment
• Infrastructure

In 2003 we indentified and introduced five stragegic priorities to focus our efforts on areas likely to make the biggest contributution to economic development. In May 2007, we revised our choice of strategic priorities for the years ahead. We added three new strategic priorities: Sustainable business; Investment; and Auckland. We also removed three strategic priorities: Innovation; Regulatory environment; and Leadership. These these elements of the Ministry's work remain important and are still reflected in the other strategic priorities.

• Innovation is an overarching focus for most of our strategic priorities - it is one of the ends that the other strategic priorities are seeking to achieve, so we are building elements of innovation policy into a range of work programmes across the Ministry. We will also be continuing to improve our understanding of New Zealand's broad innovation system and ways to enhance it.
• The regulatory environment is an important means that the Ministry can influence to achieve the Government's goals. Where there are particular elements of this environment that could be instrumental in helping or hindering growth, these are often within the subject areas framed by other strategic priorities, such as investment and infrastructure. Accordingly, these areas of work will generally be "mainstreamed" into other priorities or stand alone as important projects (such as the Quality of Regulation Review).
• Leadership is now part of the Ministry's formal mandate in relation to the economic transformation agenda and so has become more embedded in the way we work across government. This will continue to be important as part of the way we work, but we have judged that there are other areas that now demand more direct focus.

The stratgeic priorities as they existed from 2003 to May 2007 were as follows:

• Leadership
  Leading a whole-of-government approach to economic development.
• International Linkages
  Improving the international linkages that allow firms to benefit from trade, knowledge transfer and investment.
• Innovation
  Fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in New Zealand firms.
• Regulatory Environment
  Strengthening the growth focus in the regulatory environment for business.
• Infrastructure
  Improving the quality and reliability of key infrastructure services.