New direction for Rotorua economic development

A new economic direction for Rotorua has taken another step forward this week with Rotorua District Council (RDC) releasing a draft economic development strategy for comment.

The strategy has been developed over recent months in partnership with a project reference group chaired by Waiariki Institute of Technology head Pim Borren. Others in the reference group are businessmen Joe La Grouw, Ray Cook, Tupara Morrison, Lyall Thurston, Gary Gillespie and Chamber CEO Roger Gordon, along with Bay of Plenty regional councillor Jane Nees and Rotorua district councillor Mike McVicker.

RDC chief executive Peter Guerin said the draft strategy was not yet complete but was being released for feedback to a number of stakeholders interested in sustainable growth for the district.

“The key focus areas in the report are around the objectives and identification of generic economic development strategies. We are encouraging interested parties to comment on the broad economic direction or on sector specific growth strategies if they prefer.”

The purpose of the draft economic development strategy is to:

• Set the strategic direction for economic development in Rotorua District.
• Define a clear plan for achieving the strategic direction.
• Prioritise allocation of scarce resources to achieve optimal outcome
• Clarify roles in delivering the strategy including agencies, accountabilities and performance monitoring.
• Define measures and processes for monitoring performance against the strategy.
• Link to and align with wider regional and national policies and strategies.

Mr Guerin said the strategy would be a living document to be reviewed regularly and was a response to the need to lift economic performance of the Rotorua district.

He said it had involved consideration of national and international best practice, analysis of current economic performance and growth options, collaboration with key stakeholders, and formulation of a growth plan and implementation structure

“Rotorua has not fulfilled the economic and population growth potential that many people believe it’s capable of, especially given our district’s good infrastructure and services capable of supporting a higher level of business activity and a larger resident population.“

The draft strategy has adopted the aspirational overarching vision of:

‘ROTORUA: living the dream – world class in every way.’
The key objectives of the strategy for the next five years have been identified as:

1. Changing reputation of Rotorua to be:

• acknowledged as a leader in tourism, forestry & wood processing, and geothermal industries
• a preferred choice as a lifestyle destination
• known as an innovative and sustainable District
• known as a place where it is attractive to invest and easy to do business
• a District centre with an enabling regulatory environment.

2. Lifting performance of the local Rotorua economy by:

• having an increased number of start-up companies ahead of the national average growth rate.
• developing and implementing an active strategy around business retention.
• increasing employment annually by 0.1 percentage points ahead of NZ average growth rate
• generating greater demand in the economy by increasing population annually by 0.1 percentage points ahead of the New Zealand average growth rate
• Increasing average room nights and spend to at least equal the national average annual rate of growth from both domestic and international visitors.

3. Raising living and skills standards by:

• having average household income increase faster than national average growth rate.
• reducing the percentage of households in the bottom quartile of national income.
• Increasing the level of skills in the workforce relative to the national average.

Mr Guerin said in addition to seeking feedback on the draft strategy from a number of Rotorua business and organisations there would be further workshops with councillors, the Rotorua Business Leaders Group and information disseminated through business publications before the strategy was finalised.

He said anyone interested in feeding ideas into the strategy would be welcome to make comment by contacting Deryck Shaw of APR Consultants before 24 June by email to deryck.shaw@apr.govt.nz or by mail to PO Box 1715, Rotorua.