Regional Economic Development Planning in New Zealand: Who Owns It?
Professor Paul Dalziel
Professor Caroline Saunders
1. Introduction
A change of government in November 1999 led to a comprehensive reform of the way New Zealand approaches regional economic development policy. The former Ministry of Commerce was expanded and renamed the Ministry of Economic Development, which was then given responsibility for preparing and implementing a new regional development strategy (Anderton, 2000a and 2000b; Schöllmann and Dalziel, 2002). The flagship policy of the strategy is the regional partnerships programme (RPP), now administered by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE). The RPP recognises 26 regions covering the country (see figure 1), and provides funding and guidance to assist each region identify and develop a sustainable regional economic growth strategy. This includes up to $100 000 for strategic planning, up to $100 000 per year for capability building, and up to $2 million for a major regional initiative (MRI). An MRI is a large-scale project that can build on a comparative advantage identified for the region, with an emphasis on promoting key enablers for regional growth. Examples include the Waikato Innovation Park in Hamilton, the National Centre of Excellence in Wood Processing Education and Training in Rotorua, and the Wine Research Centre of Excellence in Marlborough.
In 2002, the Ministry of Economic Development commissioned the authors to survey the wider international experience of regional partnerships such as the Stronger Regions, A Stronger Australia policy (see, for example, DOTARS, 2002, and Bellamy et al, 2003). The authors were also asked to examine the application of that international experience to the regional partnerships set up under the RPP in Eastern Bay of Plenty (region 10 in figure 1), Marlborough (region 20) and Canterbury (region 23). There are considerable differences in size, geography, population, socio-economic circumstances and approaches to regional partnership in these three regions (see Dalziel et al, 2003). This paper draws on those differences to address a key question facing New Zealand and overseas regional policy advisors 'who owns regional economic development planning'
The paper begins with a section on what ownership of regional economic development planning means, focusing on the difference between private property ownership and common property ownership. Section 3 describes the early history and governance structures of the regional partnerships in Canterbury, Eastern Bay of Plenty and Marlborough. Section 4 draws on these three case studies to discuss three key aspects of common property ownership identified in Section 2. In particular, Section 5 highlights the contrast between the first two case studies where each regional partnership assigns its work to a specialist regional economic development agency and the third case study where working groups are set up for each individual development project. Section 6 is a brief conclusion.
Figure 1
Regional Partnership Programme Regions in New Zealand
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1 Northland
2 Auckland
3 Thames Valley
4 Waikato
5 King Country
6 South Waikato
7 Taupo
8 Western Bay of Plenty
9 Rotorua
10 Eastern Bay of Plenty
11 Tairawhiti
12 Taranaki
13 Wanganui
14 Hawkes Bay
15 Manawatu
16 Tararua
17 Kapitia/Horoeka
18 Wairarapa
19 Wellington
20 Marlborough
21 Nelson/Tasman
22 West Coast
23 Canterbury
24 Otago
25 Southland
26 Chatham Islands |
Source: New Zealand Trade and Enterprise
http://www.nzte.govt.nz/section/11730.aspx |
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