Chamber to unlock ‘war chest’ of funds

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

SPEAKING at the chamber’s annual meeting on Wednesday, vice-president Gavin Murphy said the chamber’s management of its regional business partner role was due to end at the end of this year. He said over the past five years it had amassed “an embarrassing” surplus of funds.

“Up until now the chamber has run the regional business partner programme, a government-funded initiative where the chamber, under sub-contract from Gisborne District Council, has been receiving the funding for a full-time resource.

“Because the chamber has been good about how we have gone about that, there is now a surplus.

“We are in the last year of that contract, which has been going since about 2010. It has had the ability for the Government to extend it. That has run out and 2015 is the last year to extend that contract — and they are going to come out in the last half of this year with a new plan for funding.”

The $120,000-a-year regional business partner network programme, funded by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and Callaghan Innovation, assists business owners with an assessment service that helps businesses prioritise training and development needs.

Mr Murphy said the Gisborne chamber’s surplus had been maintained while still achieving all the government targets.

During that time the chamber had been a strong advocate regarding the need for an economic development agency in the region, which had now come to fruition with the creation of Activate Tairawhiti.

“What was abundantly clear right from the get-go was at the very least Activate Tairawhiti should hold that contract with the Government and, in fact, in most other areas the government has sub-contracted an EDA to run that programme.”

It was obvious that Activate Tairawhiti was a natural fit for the contract. “In 2016, whatever shape or form that government funding for the region is in, Activate Tairawhiti will lead it and the chamber will support it.

Regional development initiatives“As a result of us running that contract well, we have run up quite an embarrassing surplus of funds. We would look to give some of that surplus to provide funding to a number of Activate Tairawhiti work streams during 2015.”

Consequently, the chamber was in a position to distribute several lump sums to support key regional development initiatives this year, he said.

Possible projects had still to be decided but they would be “very much business-focused”.