Chief Executive's Introduction
The Ministry of Economic Development works across the public sector to advise on, co-ordinate and align activities that stimulate economic development. We influence the environment in which businesses grow and invest. We strive for a policy environment that regulates economic activity effectively and at low cost. We also deliver services to businesses and consumers that assist them to conduct their affairs effectively.
Our purpose is to foster economic development and prosperity for all New Zealanders.
This Statement of Intent presents the Ministry's plans for the three-year period 2002 to 2005. It is very much a forward-looking document. Developing it has provided an opportunity to focus the organisation more strongly on what we are trying to achieve rather than just what we produce. The Statement of Intent explicitly emphasises the economic development outcomes that are important for the Government, and how the Ministry intends working to achieve them.
We have taken as our starting point the Government's broad goals, especially that of growing an innovative, inclusive economy for the benefit of all. We have also drawn on the growth and innovation framework set out in the Government's Growing an Innovative New Zealand document released last February.
Our challenge has been to identify outcomes that best define the Ministry's contribution and links to those broader goals. Several government agencies contribute to these broad goals, and we have focused on those aspects for which we are primarily responsible. We have borne in mind the responsibilities and contributions of other agencies, and that our Ministry's comparative strength is in understanding the dynamics of New Zealand's business environment and economic development processes.
This approach has kept our outcomes clear and targeted, hence providing a real focus for our staff and stakeholders. We have also been mindful of government goals that emphasise priorities other than economic growth per se, such as protecting and enhancing the environment, reducing inequalities, and upholding the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. This can be seen in the output descriptions in the latter part of this document. But in light of the diverse range of our activities, we have sought to harness our expertise to ensure we achieve the key elements that will help improve New Zealand's economic performance.
While mindful of what we presently do, we have developed the outcomes for the Ministry more from the perspective of what this Ministry should be attempting to achieve. We followed a process to create a cascade of outcomes and goals that:
- demonstrates the Ministry's contribution to the Government's objectives; and
- allows staff working across our diverse range of activities to see the links between their work areas and the Ministry's wider strategic direction.
After the Strategic Leadership Team had developed the outcome framework, the branches reviewed the outcomes and identified linkages to work programmes and outputs. The branches prepared statements of "intervention logic" underpinning their work, in some cases identifying where new work would be required. This was a bottom-up verification of the outcome framework, and also had the broader objective of encouraging organisational ownership of the outcomes. We also tested the outcome framework in a workshop with external economic and business participants.
We will improve this Statement of Intent over the coming year. We will be testing its effectiveness and will adjust the outcome framework where that helps better relate our activities with Government goals or the role of other agencies. And we will develop performance indicators to help us assess our progress in achieving the outcomes we have set.
But the greatest opportunity arising from developing this Statement of Intent is to make it an effective tool for setting our strategic direction and aligning activities within the Ministry. We have already embarked on an organisational development project - Creating the Future - that has laid the foundations for this next phase. We have a strong sense of our core purpose and values as a Ministry of Economic Development, and a vision of how we see the Ministry developing in the decade ahead. Our challenge now is to make it happen.
Geoff Dangerfield
April 2002
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