Government's Key Priorities
The Government's Key Priorities Are:
- Economic Transformation
- Families - Young and Old
- National Identity.
Figure 1: Strategic landscape for regional economic development
Economic Transformation
Economic Transformation is about transforming New Zealand's economy into a high income, knowledge-based market economy, which is innovative and creative and which provides a high quality of life to all New Zealanders.
There are five focus areas under economic transformation. These are:
- Growing globally competitive firms
- World class infrastructure
- Innovative and productive workplaces
- Environmental sustainability
- An internationally competitive city - Auckland
Further information (including Cabinet papers) on Economic Transformation can be found at: Economic Transformation.
There are also a number of related strategies with a wider economic development focus. The focus of the Labour Market and Employment Strategy Better Work Working Better is on achieving high quality employment in productive and innovative industries, regions and businesses that drives sustainable economic growth and opportunities for all New Zealanders. (This is shown in Figure 1 above.)
Further information on Better Work Working Better can be found at: Employment Strategy Workforce Policy - [link to external website].
The Tertiary Education Strategy 2007-2012 sets out the priorities for New Zealand's tertiary education including a focus on increasing the achievement of advanced trade, technical and professional qualifications to meet regional and national industry needs. A copy of the Tertiary Education Strategy 2007-2012 can be found at: Release of the Second Tertiary Education Strategy 2007/12 - [link to external website].
Regional Economic Development
All the agencies featured in this booklet recognise the importance of regional economic development. Economic development in this instance is defined as the process of raising the level of prosperity and material living in a society through sustainable wealth creation that fully utilises community resources.
From a central government perspective, while there is a multitude of agencies involved in regional economic development, their overarching strategic intent is to actively contribute to better regional and local outcomes. Equally regional and local input is essential to national strategy development and implementation.
All agencies recognise that strong regional economies are an integral aspect of growing the economy as a whole; that regional decision makers influence economic outcomes and that a collaborative and joined up approach is essential in making the whole (region) greater than the sum of its parts.
In April 2007, the Minister for Economic Development announced that the government was refreshing its approach to regional economic development in order to support its economic transformation agenda. A key focus of the refreshed approach was supporting the development, monitoring, communication and implementation of regional economic development strategies.
A detailed action plan is an essential part of an economic development strategy and provides an excellent framework for all those involved in regional economic development to identify how their organisation or agency can contribute to a strategy's implementation.
The Regional Development Unit within the Ministry of Economic Development is available to provide guidance to regions about strategy development, particularly in the early stages of strategy planning. A framework and guidelines for strategy development is available on the MED website Strategies for Regional Growth.
Further information (including the Cabinet papers) on regional economic development policy can be found at: Regional Development.
More detail about a specific region's economic development strategy can be found at: Regional Economic Development Strategies - [link to external website].
The Ministry of Social Development publishes annual regional plans. These plans set out the priorities and direction for each of its eleven regions. Information on the regional plans for 2007/2008 can be found at: Regional Plans 2007-2008 - [link to external website].
Figure 2 overleaf shows where government agencies in the regions contribute to regional economic development in four key areas.
Figure 2: Central government agencies in regional development
Figure 3: All agencies at a regional level
Figure 3 shows all agencies contributing to regional economic development that operate at a regional level. The middle row of the jigsaw shows the non-central government agencies that work together with central government to foster and support regional economic development. The Ministry of Economic Development develops and, in some cases implements regional economic development policy, however it is not shown on this diagram because (with the exception of Auckland) it does not have a regional presence.
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