Closing Address to the 2005 Regional Development Conference
Hon Jim Anderton MP
Member of Parliament for Wigram
Minister for Economic, Industry & Regional Development
Speech notes
I'm delighted to have the opportunity to close this conference, because I know you all want me to finish that speech I started on Monday.
This week, we have celebrated twenty-three consecutive quarters of year-on-year growth in our regions.
We have enjoyed a long and pleasant economic summer.
We will leave this conference with some enduring ideas about sustaining our success.
But while cold months follow every summer, we don't need to accept an economic frost is inevitable in our regions.
We can lock in success.
It's urgent that we make the continued success of our regions our priority.
And to guarantee our future, we can't be satisfied with what we are achieving now.
New Zealanders need to take responsibility for solving our own problems.
The most urgent of these is our need to deliver a standard of living and quality of life sufficient to provide a future for young New Zealanders in every region.
We need to provide jobs and incomes that offer skilled young people opportunities.
So this week has been about learning how to do better.
COMMENTS FROM THE CONFERENCE
One of the great things about conferences like this one is that we have a chance to exchange views about regional development. I can't cover them all, but these big themes stand out.
- Are we addressing the most important issues for regional development and what are the areas that need more attention?
Some of the themes that have come out of presentations, workshops and feedback from the Chatham House point to the need to put greater emphasis on:
- the provision of quality infrastructure to support fulfilling the local vision;
- better coordination between different levels of government and their programmes; and
- how to best use the potential and skills of all New Zealanders.
 Key challenges arising from the conference - Are our programmes working?
Our current programmes, particularly the RPP and MRIs, have helped to catalyse growth and activity. They've encouraged you to uncover your region's strength.
However, the MRI should only be one part of our overall programme for regional development.
We have already made the RPP more flexible. Take, for example, the inter-regional capability-building initiative where regions pool resources and join up on projects. We need more of these initiatives.
We have to recognise that the approach we take to regional engagement needs to be targeted to the actual needs of the region. For example, Auckland's needs differ from those of the West Coast. Developing the foundations for regional development may be more important than specific projects for some regions.
Above all, we need better integrated local and regional strategies. Improved information will allow for better quality strategies. Linking Long Term Council Community Plans (LTCCPs), economic strategies, and other strategies will allow us to deliver a more comprehensive approach to regional development.
Cost and timeliness of accessing government assistance programmes has come up as an area for improvement a number of times during this conference.
Some of you have raised concerns about the processes and procedures around getting funding and other assistance from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
Let me say first that NZTE and other government agencies in the economic development space are spending public money - your money and mine - that they distribute on behalf of the Government.
We need to be careful and prudent in how we handle finite public resources.
Nonetheless, I have spoken to Tim Gibson, CEO of NZTE, about your concerns.
He has told me that NZTE is reviewing aspects of its grants process.
Practical steps that NZTE is taking to speed up the processing of applications include:
- delegating more discretionary responsibility to staff and management; and
- simplifying the contracts you have to sign with NZTE.
NZTE is also working with the Office of the Auditor General to further streamline internal processes without increasing the chance of improper payments.
We need more of a culture that tolerates risk and celebrates success rather than condemning failure. I quote Colin James in the New Zealand Herald today:
"The one real tolerator of risk is Jim Anderton, who insists that his assistance to business will not be working if there are no risks and no failures and has stood firm even when ACT and National have attacked the failures."
 Tolerance of risk - Lastly, many of you have expressed concern about the number of players in economic development at local, regional and national levels.
We have to ask the question whether the current institutional settings are best place to achieve regional economic development outcomes. Also, how can the government assist those institutions that need to develop further capability?
We need to ensure that regional institutions have sufficient critical mass to deliver on the tasks required of them. This may mean looking at new ways for the different institutions to work together. New Zealand is a small country, and we cannot afford to be duplicating resources where we don't need to.
We need to ensure that tasks are undertaken at the appropriate level by those with sufficient capability based on their particular strengths and expertise. I think a lot can be achieved at a regional level without losing our local identities.
 Regional Issues: Recent Government Support
Central government is committed to playing its part.
The Ministry of Economic Development is assessing whether the government is doing all it can for the regions.
This conference has been a starting point in the process.
The themes that underpin success in our regions are well known to us now.
We need partnerships.
Networks and collaboration offer opportunities we can't achieve on our own.
I'm not discouraged by New Zealand's small scale in the world.
I'm encouraged by the qualities our size has bred; qualities like self-reliance and initiative.
But we also need to harness our collective strengths if we are going to build on our advantages.
If we can work together, we can create world-class size and scale and make a global impact.
We have enjoyed some success in bringing together all those with stake in development.
We have further to go to make global impact.
We don't yet have enough examples of leveraging the benefits of partnerships to create world-class advantages.
So doing better at leveraging the power of networks.
Consider 'Metcalfe's Law'.
This states that the usefulness of any network equals the square of the number of users.
Or, to put it plainly, the more people are connected to each other, the more the value of those connections increase, and they increase exponentially.
So developing our own networks and partnerships is crucial.
Plugging into wider networks is even more critical.
Alongside networks and partnerships, we know that a well-researched strategy is critical to regional development.
No matter how large or small, nor how far along the development path, an agreed strategy is always the best basis for economic development activity.
A strategy identifies a region's potential and its priorities for development.
It identifies opportunities and lays out a route to achieve your goals.
It identifies what a region is good at.
A good strategy identifies also what the market wants and the barriers we need to overcome to access that market.
Economic development strategies should be living documents, and they should be a continual point of reference in decision-making.
A strategy that meets the needs of a region can only be drawn up inclusively, with the involvement and consensus of everyone who has a stake in the region's future.
So, as we go on from this conference, I urge you to work more at building involvement in your strategies across your communities.
And I urge you to ensure your economic development strategies remain at the centre of planning, debate and discussion about the future of your region.
Economic Development Agencies have a crucial role in creating and implementing economic development strategies.
They need to be well-resourced with a clear strategies and good links to the wider community and business environment.
And they can make a significant difference, so I urge you to support your EDAs and to trust them with the development and implementation of your strategies.
For its part, the government remains committed to working in partnership with regions - proactively, and with the flexibility to adapt our response to the unique conditions of each region.
Some regions still need support to put in place the foundations of economic growth.
Others have very strong linkages and are poised to unleash growth.
As we have seen with Major Regional Initiatives to date, some regions are streaking ahead, others are making only tentative steps.
No one wants to pull regions back, especially when some regions are straining at the leash, looking for opportunities for serious growth.
I want you to be encouraged to accelerate your growth, and the government will be flexible in responding when you identify new tools you can use to grow your region's competitive advantage.
I want to give you three quick examples of the initiatives the government is supporting in different regions.
They are examples of how we can respond flexibly to local needs.
The first is a $300,000 grant I announced yesterday to Environment Canterbury to contribute toward the cost of community consultation around potential water storage facilities.
Increasing demand for water from residential, business and agricultural consumers is a critical constraint on development in the Canterbury region.
The Canterbury mayoral forum has identified water storage facilities as the best solution to the water constraints.
Gains worth an estimated $330 million annually in productivity from new irrigation initiatives could result.
So the government has made this grant from the Regional Initiatives Fund.
Today, I can give another two examples of flexible government response to the needs of individual regions.
I've approved a $90,000 grant from the Regional Initiatives Fund to help fund a study of housing pressures in Nelson, Marlborough and Tasman.
A strong regional economy, a growing population and rising property values sounds like a recipe for success.
But in those regions, with low unemployment and significant skills shortages, they may be a constraint on growth.
This study has been set up to better understand the issues and work with local stakeholders to find solutions to the issue.
I'm also announcing a grant of $65,275 from the Sector Initiatives Fund to help develop a horticulture-viticulture industry strategy to alleviate serious seasonal labour shortages.
You see, having produced the lowest level of unemployment in a generation, the government now has to find ways to deal with the problems of low unemployment.
Labour shortages are a serious threat to our growth.
The industry has made a contribution and the strategy will be industry-led.
This project will dovetail with the industry's own initiatives; one was announced here yesterday, when Hawke's Bay fruit growers announced the Pick NZ website.
The government is contributing its share to solving the problem with the seasonal labour shortage strategy.
It will help to develop a comprehensive and factual account of the conditions creating the shortages and to come up with solutions.
The point of these initiatives is that there remain urgent problems to confront.
The government could sit idly by on the sidelines and wish you well in solving them.
That's what governments used to do.
But instead we choose to actively engage with a positive response.
Each region needs to pick up the challenge at of being proactive, as well.
We need to work in partnership to confront the barriers to development.
We have learned a lot about regional development in the last four years since we held our conference in 2001.
This conference has again been an opportunity to absorb the experiences of others.
I started out by saying we have enjoyed an economic summer in our regions.
But it is still only the early spring in the emergence of ideas about how our regions can grow.
The need to harness our potential is urgent.
Young workers starting out in New Zealand need to know they have a future here.
They need to know they can enjoy opportunities and a lifestyle to rival anywhere in the world.
And we have an urgent development job ahead before we can look them in the eye and promise that future will be guaranteed in every region of New Zealand.
So we need to get started now.
Of course we can't do everything at once.
We need to set priorities.
But we need to begin.
When it comes to setting priorities, I am reminded of a story about a politician who stayed with a farming family here in the Hawke's Bay.
As the family sat down to dinner, they were joined at the table by a pig.
And the pig had a medal hanging around his neck and a peg leg.
The MP obviously asked why the pig was having dinner with the family.
"That's because he's a very special pig," the farmer told him.
"You see that medals around his neck? Well, that's from when I fell in the pond and I was drowning. That pig swam out, rescued me from the pond, gave me mouth to mouth to resuscitate me, then rushed inside and dialled 111 to call an ambulance. That pig saved my life."
"Well I can see why you let that pig sit at the table and have dinner with you," the MP said.
"And I can see why you awarded him the medal. But how did he get the peg leg?"
"Well," said, the farmer, "a pig like that--you don't eat him all at once."
Thank you for your attendance at this conference.
It has been another useful and enlightening experience.
In closing this conference, let me wish all our regions continued prosperity and lasting success.
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