By ELLEN READ
Relations between businesses and the city council are looking up in Manukau, with the formation of a business forum to create a closer partnership.
Of the more than 18,000 firms in Manukau City, over half are classed as small businesses.
The business sector is the main contributor to the local
economy which, the council says, is worth $8.4 billion a year.
The Manukau Business Forum, which includes businesspeople, council staff and councillors, held its first meeting before Christmas.
Chairwoman Elspeth Mount said that meeting was mainly to spread information about the workings of the annual plan and the setting of rates.
The forum would meet regularly this year and would enable small businesses to have a collective voice on the council, she said.
The chairman of the council's strategic management committee, Len Brown, said many of the council's decisions had an impact on business.
"The council is always looking for ways to attract new ventures or help current ones expand by, for example, lowering the compliance costs of doing business.
"In the past the council has consulted the business community regularly but that was on an ad hoc basis," he said.
"It was clear we needed a more regular way of examining issues and finding ways of working together for the improvement of our local economy and the city in general."
