Strategic Direction
This section:
- outlines what we are aiming to achieve on behalf of the Government
- shows how this contributes to the Government's priorities
- summarises our interactions with other agencies
- indicates how we will measure our performance.
What We Are Seeking To Achieve
To support the Government's aim of an innovative and creative, high-income, knowledge-based economy, we have identified six long-term outcomes for the Ministry:
- Enterprising and innovative businesses – improving the drivers for success and productivity improvement in firms.
- International linkages – improving the linkages that allow New Zealand firms to benefit from trade, and the flows of investment, skills, and technology.
- Dynamic and trusted markets – improving the competitiveness, integrity, and effectiveness of New Zealand's markets.
- Ease of doing business – improving the way public agencies and the regulatory environment interact with business.
- Efficient, reliable, and responsive infrastructure services – improving the quality and reliability of key infrastructure services that support growth.
- Auckland, a world-class city – improving Auckland as a world-class city that attracts firms, investment, and skills.
These outcomes are interrelated and equally important. Although our role will enable us to contribute significantly to them, their achievement will also depend on a wide range of factors outside our direct influence.
We undertake an annual review to identify strategic priorities for the Ministry over the next one to three years. These strategic priorities represent the best prospects for advancing the Government's priorities and achieving sustainable economic growth. Our strategic priorities for the coming period are:
- innovation – providing aligned and well-focused government support for enterprise and innovation
- sustainable business – helping New Zealand firms to use environmental integrity for economic advantage
- firm internationalisation – supporting the development of globally-focused and linked businesses
- investment – improving the investment environment for New Zealand firms
- business portal and standard business reporting – simplifying transactions between government and business by developing the business portal and investigating the feasibility of a standard business reporting proposal
- better broadband – improving the level and availability of broadband to support growth
- low-emissions electricity – advancing renewable electricity and energy efficiency
- Auckland strategy and governance – contributing to a single action-focused "One Plan" for Auckland.
How This Contributes To The Government's Priorities
One of the Government's three key priorities for the next decade is to transform New Zealand's economy into a high-income, knowledge-based market economy, which is both innovative and creative, and provides a unique quality of life to all New Zealanders. The Ministry's aim of contributing to an internationally-competitive and sustainable economy directly supports this priority.
The Ministry is the Government's lead advisor on its Economic Transformation policy programme. Much of the detailed content of this work also sits within the Ministry's responsibilities.
In particular, the Ministry leads three of the Government's Economic Transformation themes: "Globally-competitive firms", "World-class infrastructure", and "Auckland – an internationally-competitive city". The Ministry also has a major involvement in the other themes: "Environmental sustainability" and "Innovative and productive workplaces".
Our six long-term outcomes directly support achievement of these Economic Transformation themes as shown in Figure 2.
The Government has also made sustainability a key cross-cutting government priority across all three of its key priorities, and has articulated a vision of New Zealand as the world's first sustainable nation. A sustainability dimension is woven throughout our work programme, and we give it particular focus within our sustainable business strategic priority.
How We Will Work With Other Agencies
Each of our outcomes is linked to those of other agencies.
In particular, the Ministry of Economic Development works alongside the Treasury to provide economic advice to the Government. The Treasury's main focus is on issues that have a pervasive impact on the performance of the economy as a whole. The Ministry's complementary focus is on ways of improving New Zealand's economic growth potential, drawing on its knowledge and understanding of firm and sector issues.
Figure 3 shows some of the main links1 between the Ministry's work and that of other agencies. Given these links, we work closely with a wide range of agencies as well as with a large number of private sector stakeholders.
Alignment And The Innovation System
As one example of this, the Ministry is working with the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, and the Tertiary Education Commission to identify mechanisms to better align government economic development activity across the innovation system including education and training; research, science and technology; and business and market development in strategic areas of the economy. This will include ensuring that government agencies' strategies for encouraging greater innovation are joined up, and priorities aligned.
How We Will Measure Our Performance
Given the breadth of our identified outcomes, measuring our performance is challenging. Our approach to this challenge will be to seek to measure both the Ministry's direct contribution and New Zealand's overall progress towards our identified outcomes. In the latter case, however, the level of success will obviously depend on many factors outside the Ministry's control, as well as on the effectiveness of the Ministry's work.
Figure 2: How Our Work Contributes To The Government's Economic Transformation Priority
→ Full size version of Figure 2 [207 kB JPG]
Figure 3: How Our Outcomes Relate To Those Of Other Agencies
→ Full size version of Figure 3 [248 kB JPG]
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