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Pacific businesses encouraged to access online tool

Thursday 31 July 2008, 1:04AM

By Hon Luamanuvao Winnie Laban

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Pacific business people now have access to a new online tool which can help them assess and improve their performance, Pacific Island Affairs Minister and Associate Economic Development Minister Luamanuvao Winnie Laban says.

Commenting on yesterday’s launch of the New Zealand Business Assessment tool by Economic Development Minister Pete Hodgson, Laban said increasing the economic participation of Pacific peoples was a well-signalled priority.

"Through the Pacific Economic Action Plan and Pacific Women’s Economic Development Plan the government is committed to lifting the economic potential and prosperity of Pacific peoples in New Zealand.

"An objective of the plans is to increase awareness by Pacific peoples of programmes and strategies for developing business capability."

The free online tool enables business owners of any ethnicity to assess the performance of their businesses in areas that are key to improving their capabilities. Owners answer a 30 minute questionnaire to assess their business’ capabilities in six areas, Leadership, Planning, Customer and Market Focus, Measurement Analysis and Knowledge Management, Process Management, and Human Resources.

Laban said the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs was involved in the Consultation Group overseeing the design of the key aspects of the tool, developed by the Business Capability Partnership, which is a consortium of business groups, economic development agencies and government agencies.

“It was important to ensure that the needs of Pacific business owners were reflected in this tool, and they could identify themselves accordingly. Businesses can be legal entities and have no specific ethnicities, but owners do."

“I hope many of our Pacific business owners will take the opportunity to use the tool and other business assistance programmes to improve the performance of their businesses," Laban said.

The tool can be found at www.businessassessment.co.nz