This year’s Building Nations summit will welcome a plethora of distinguished keynote speakers from across Aotearoa New Zealand, alongside notable international keynote guests.
The two-day summit, which gets underway today at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland, will focus on reshaping and delivering New Zealand’s critical infrastructure.
Infrastructure NZ chairwoman Tracey Ryan will give the opening address, followed by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who will speak on “infrastructure decision-making amid growing polarisation”.
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop will later outline his priorities, including the next steps towards the formation of a National Infrastructure Agency.
The need for thoughtful innovation, strategic investment, and collaboration in the country’s infrastructure has long been recognised.
The summit will delve into crucial themes, such as leveraging private capital, increasing delivery capacity, and fostering new partnerships with local government, iwi, and the broader infrastructure sector.
These discussions aim to drive forward-thinking solutions to some of New Zealand’s most pressing infrastructure challenges.
Martina Moroney, Advocacy and Strategy Lead for Infrastructure NZ — the organisation spearheading the summit — emphasised the importance of a long-term vision for the nation’s infrastructure.
“Our view is that we need to be really serious around having a long-term vision for New Zealand, and a long-term plan for delivering that infrastructure.
“And what that means is getting the system settings right — so, the delivery and advisory system, within Government, but also how central Government partners with local government, with the private sector, with iwi, Māori, and with civil society to deliver that infrastructure — and getting the models and mechanisms right to facilitate the private investment that we need,” she said.
As the country’s leading infrastructure member association, Infrastructure NZ has been pivotal in reshaping the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model and exploring innovative financing tools. These efforts are expected to be at the forefront of discussions at this year’s summit.
Among the many guest speakers are international keynote speakers professors Francis Fukuyama and Edward Glaeser and Lord Michael Heseltine.
“Often, we have historically been quite insular in the way that we think about the solutions to our problems,” Moroney said of New Zealand’s past approach to infrastructure, “so we’re really excited to have some really big global thinkers with those insights on how we address our challenges globally and in other ways.”
Fukuyama, from Stanford University in the United States, will bring insight from his recent focus on “infrastructure as a global democracy problem” and will explore “the symptoms of that, but also solutions that he’s seeing globally, and how we might apply them in New Zealand”, Moroney said.
Harvard professor Edward Glaeser has, Moroney said, deep-ranging knowledge in the evolution of city infrastructure over time and is “really an opportunity to tap into overseas experience around data and innovation and driving better outcomes”.
As “one of the fathers of the UK’s devolution”, Moroney said the summit can expect to hear from Heseltine “about that evolution, but also about how they’ve managed to lift the capabilities and resources of city governments, local governments, the private sector, and civil society”.
With 865 confirmed guests, the summit is set to be the biggest yet. For the third consecutive year, the event has sold out, emphasising the importance of discussions and collaboration to shape the future of New Zealand’s infrastructure.
Building Nations brings three big international names to share their thoughts on the road ahead for New Zealand’s infrastructure
A renowned political scientist, Fukuyama has a breadth of knowledge on political order, governance, and state-building.
Much of his research has focused on the role of institutions and governance in facilitating effective infrastructure development, highlighting the importance of infrastructure concerning political stability and economic development.
More recently, his work examines infrastructure as a global issue and the challenges of governance in impacting on its ability to deliver essential infrastructure projects across the world.
Fukuyama is an Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), a faculty member of FSI’s Centre on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), as well as Director of Stanford’s Masters in International Policy Programme, and a professor (by courtesy) of political science. Fukuyama’s expertise in governance and infrastructure makes him a valuable contributor to discussions on global infrastructure challenges and solutions.
Professor Edward Glaeser
Professor Edward Glaeser.
As one of the world’s leading urban economists, Glaeser’s work concentrates on the economics of cities and urbanisation.
His expertise lies in the understanding of the growth of cities, its challenges, and innovative solutions to these issues.
Glaeser advocates for policies that support urban density, the reduction of regulatory barriers to housing and development as well as the enhancement of cities to foster economic growth, and has published multiple papers on these topics.
His insights into transportation, housing markets and urban planning have made him a key figure in discussions on how infrastructure can drive productivity, innovation, and improved quality of life in urban environments, making him a stellar keynote speaker at this year’s summit.
Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and the Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University. He has served as director of the Taubman Centre for State and Local Government, and as director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston.
His books include Cities, Agglomeration, and Spatial Equilibrium, Rethinking Federal Housing Policy, Triumph of the City, and Survival of the City: Mass Flourishing in an Age of Social Isolation.
Rt Hon Lord Heseltine of Thenford
Rt Hon Lord Heseltine of Thenford.
A prominent British politician, Heseltine has had a significant influence on the UK’s regional development and infrastructure policies across many decades.
Heseltine is an advocate for urban regeneration, founding projects such as London’s Docklands 1981 redevelopment following its demise after the bombings of World War II; it is widely considered one of the largest and most successful infrastructure projects of all time.
His work has led to an array of successful initiatives such as City Deals (agreements between Government and local council) and the Northern Powerhouse (aiding growth in the North of England) that promote the success of local leadership and public-private partnership to aid the delivery of effective infrastructure projects across the country.
Heseltine was instrumental in the promotion of the 1979 “Right to Buy” campaign to allow people to purchase their council houses.
His 2012 report titled No Stone Unturned in Pursuit of Growth centres on the importance of decentralisation, empowering local governments to drive infrastructure and economic growth.
He began his career as a property developer and was an MP from 1966 to 2001 for the Conservative Party and served as deputy prime minister and first secretary of state in John Major’s 1995-1997 Government.
