• Home
• NZ Economic Development
• Industry Development
• Sector Engagement
• Framework Cabinet Paper
• Appendix One

• Industry Development

• Sector Engagement

• Right Hemisphere Loan
• Manufacturing
• Screen Production Grant Review
• Framework Cabinet Paper
• GIF Taskforces
• Food and Beverage

Section A: Disengagement

1. Whole-of-government sector engagement is resource intensive and requires a clearly articulated exit strategy. The performance of engaged sectors should be monitored over a two to five year period against specified expectations and milestones set out in the action plan.

2. Disengagement should be based on the following criteria:

• Sector engagement is no longer required, given that:
  • Identified impediments to growth have been addressed (the possibility of future issue-specific engagement is left open); and
  • government has reached the limits of what it can usefully do to at the time to assist the sector to establish a "virtuous configuration" of networks, linkages, research, innovation and commercialisation.
• engagement is not delivering the desired outcomes, the prospects for achieving those outcomes are not good, and better candidates for engagement have emerged; or
• the sector is not doing enough to help itself, is not committed to a partnership approach with government and key milestones have (or have not) been met.

Section B: Managing Sector Engagement Risks

3. To manage the risks of high-level sector engagement, the following points should be fed into the case-by-case design of high-level sector engagement, and the implementation of action points:

• Favour policies that aim to get the benefits of well-targeted intervention, but which minimise the costs of poorly targeted intervention:
  • Focus on generic interventions that address barriers to growth and do not distort investment decisions in favour of particular sectors. Such interventions may be identified through sector engagement (for example, are there gaps in generic programmes for emerging sectors as opposed to existing sectors?);
  • Focus on the better co-ordination and utilisation of government resources already available to the sector;
  • Engage with broad, rather than narrow sectors; and
  • Keep interventions, particularly in vertical sectors, modest in size initially and subject to evaluation.
• Choose interventions that harness the incentives of individuals and firms, who are likely to have more information on the growth prospects of their sector than government agencies; and
• Articulate a clear disengagement strategy at the outset, including setting a timeline and milestones.

Section C: Content of Cabinet Submissions

4. Cabinet submissions seeking approval for sector engagement should address the following issues:

• the agency that will lead the engagement and those agencies that would contribute to whole-of-government engagement;
• the rationale for high-level engagement, its objectives, and the government's role in achieving those objectives;
• analysis of the sector against the sector selection and prioritisation criteria;
• areas of overlap between vertical sector engagement and relevant GPT and horizontal technology diffusion strategies;
• existing interventions and lower tier engagement with the sector;
• a timeframe for engagement and set key milestones, including disengagement;
• resource requirements;
• the risks of engagement with the proposed sector, and how these would be addressed;
• the design of high-level sector engagement, and how the sector would work in partnership with government (for example through industry associations); and
• a plan for the evaluation of each sector engagement.