Section 3: Council Activities

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Economic Growth

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Responsibility

Kate Macnaught (Manager Corporate Strategy and Policy)

Description of service

Funding and oversight of the district economic development and regional tourism contracts under which Venture Taranaki provides a range of programmes, projects and business support.

Economic Development
1. Provides leadership and support for the development and implementation of local, regional and national strategies for the creation of a vibrant and buoyant regional economy.
2. Facilitates, promotes, encourages and supports sustainable business growth, investment and employment opportunities in Taranaki.
3. Supports and recognises the region’s enterprises and assists them to establish, flourish and prosper.
4. Seeks out, attracts and develops those events that have potential to bring significant numbers of external visitors to the region thus raising the external profile of the region.
5. Assists Taranaki to present a strong identity through a coordinated approach to promoting a regional brand.
Tourism
1. Develops and promotes the region to attract high-value visitors from the rest of New Zealand and key offshore markets.
2. Assists local tourism operators to meet the demands of the domestic and international visitor market.

Scale of service

This describes the size and scope of the activity.

$500,000 of grants into the regional economy annually.
Grow Taranaki website and portal - www.taranaki.info.
One major initiative supported annually.
One annual award function.
Minimum of one feasibility study for project with high impact potential.
Attract or retain five significant events for the district.
Exceed Tourism NZ forecasts for Taranaki visitor arrivals.
Undertake benchmark surveys to assess perception of Taranaki as “vibrant” place to live, work and play.
Continued migration coming into the district, resulting in more employment.

Rationale for activity

Economic Growth, delivered through Venture Taranaki, is the Council’s direct contribution to stimulating the local economy and as such its direct contribution to the economic well-being of the community. It also makes a substantial contribution to the Skilled Community Outcome through Venture Taranaki’s involvement with skills attraction, training and education activities. Venture Taranaki seeks to attract significant new investment to the district and region by raising awareness of Taranaki outside of the region as a destination for investment and lifestyle. The Council funds this activity on behalf of all businesses and residents in the district, because no other local organisation has sufficient representation and resources to do so.

Because economic activity tends to be organised at firm and industry level and many of our industries are regional, a regional view is often taken and responses are carried out in collaboration with other organisations in the region, including the other Taranaki local authorities.

Contribution to Community Outcomes

The Economic Growth activity contributes primarily to the Prosperous Community Outcome and makes significant contributions to the Vibrant and Skilled Community Outcomes. The number of outcome statements it contributes to reflects the high level of importance that the community places on the local economy.

Prosperous

A district that boasts a sustainable, resilient and innovative economy that prospers within the natural and social environment.

P1 Taranaki is an attractive place to work, do business and to visit.

P2 The region is a birthplace of innovation and ideas, where technological developments and opportunities for added value are capitalised on.

P3 Taranaki’s strengths are recognised and diversification of agriculture, business and industry is valued and encouraged.

P4 There is a high level of employment and adequate incomes for all.

P6 People are confident and are happy to invest in the future.

P7 The place of Maori in the local economy is supported.

Negative impacts on community well-being

There have been few side effects on the region as a result of recent economic success. These include increased traffic flows and parking demand exceeding supply in the Central Business District.

Facing the challenges – assumptions and risks

Assumptions

It is assumed that the economy in the region will recover in the next 10 year period. Annual economic growth will be modest as outlined in Treasury forecasts. It is predicted slow to modest economic growth will still have positive flow-on effects for employment and general economic and social well-being and this is anticipated in the budget year 2011/12.

Skill shortages are often the result of the rate of population ageing outpacing growth in the workforce. A continued focus on attracting skilled workers to the district will be required in 2011/12.

While the economy has seen higher unemployment in the short term, skill shortages are still seen as a long term chronic issue facing the Taranaki economies.

Risks

The current global economic downturn could continue to affect the rate of growth in Taranaki over the next few years, however key industries such as dairy and energy are strong global sectors. The economy is always subject to interest and exchange rate movement and the Taranaki economy will be influenced by the state of the national and global economy.

Managing risks

Venture Taranaki will continue to monitor issues as they arise in the local economy. The Council has provided the trust with a budget to respond to the new opportunities and overcome threats. In addition to these measures Venture Taranaki is developing a skills strategy to ensure Taranaki businesses have the skilled staff for future growth opportunities as and when these arise.

Levels of service and performance measures

The following levels of service and performance measures outline the objectives we will set and how we will measure our progress.

Service objective	Related Community Outcome(s)	Performance measures	Performance targets
Service objective	Related Community Outcome(s)	Performance measures	2010/11	2011/12
Provide leadership and support for the development and implementation of local, regional and national strategies for the creation of a vibrant and buoyant regional economy. Facilitate, promote, encourage and support sustainable business growth, investment and employment opportunities in Taranaki. Support and recognise the region’s enterprises to establish, flourish and prosper.	Prosperous1, 2, 3, 4 & 6	Inject $500,000 of grants into the regional economy subject to central government policy.	$500,000	$500,000
	Prosperous 1 Vibrant 2	Grow visits to Taranaki web portal www.taranaki.info.	Website grown	Website grown
	Prosperous 5	Support one social and/or environmental initiative per annum.	One initiative	One initiative
	Prosperous 2	Support one project with high impact potential.	One project with studies	One project with studies
	Vibrant 1	Attract or retain five major events meeting NPDC requirements, based on $850k event fund.	Five events	Five events
	Prosperous 1	Exceed Tourism NZ forecast for Taranaki “arrivals” (based on Ministry of Tourism forecast as of March each year).	Achieved	Achieved
	Prosperous 1	Conduct ‘out of region’ and ‘in region’ benchmark surveys to determine perception of Taranaki as ‘vibrant’ place to live, work and play.	Achieved	Achieved
	Prosperous 1, 4 & 5 Skilled 5	Grow numbers of people employed year on year.	Achieved	Achieved

FINANCIAL PLAN	LTCCP 2011/12 ($000)	Budget 2011/12 ($000)
OPERATIONS
Activity expenditure
Economic growth	1,858	2,024
Events funding	948	850
Total activity expenditure	2,806	2,874

Total activity revenue	0	0

Net cost of operations	2,806	2,874

RATES REQUIREMENT FOR OPERATIONS	2,806	2,874

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE

FUNDING REQUIREMENT FOR CAPITAL	0	0

RATES AND FUNDING REQUIREMENT
Rates requirement for operations	2,806	2,874
Funding requirement for capital	0	0
TOTAL RATES AND FUNDING REQUIREMENT	2,806	2,874