New entity Business Hawke's Bay outlines plans

New entity Business Hawke's Bay plans to use the skills of the Chamber of Commerce and local businesses to improve the economy and outlook for the region. Caitlin Nobes reports.
ECONOMICS statistics are not kind to Hawke's Bay, the region has higher unemployment, lower business confidence and a worse economic outlook than national averages. Now a private-sector group wants to turn that around.
Business Hawke's Bay will have a board of directors focused on bringing business to the region, increasing the average household income and increasing migration to the Bay.
The organisation is being driven by the Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce, which will administrate the organisation.
Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce president Stuart McLauchlan said the organisation wanted to do something about the difficult economic environment and the consistently poor long-term economic outlook.
The gap left by Venture Hawke's Bay's demise needed to be filled and involving the private sector was key.
"One of the main problems for past economic development agencies has been a lack of engagement and support from businesses and the private sector," Mr McLaughlan says. "We believe the chamber will be able to bridge that gap.
"We have good relationships with businesses, including those outside our membership and with other organisations and councils."
There was a risk that this new entity would not to succeed, but doing nothing would be worse.
"We're pretty confident that with business involvement we can make this work," he said. "Hawke's Bay is third from the bottom in terms of economic development. We just shouldn't be there. We've got to stop talking and start doing something."
Chamber CEO Murray Douglas wants to change the "dismal set of future scenarios" by attracting more companies, doing a variety of jobs.
"Even if we sold every sheep and every apple commodity prices are fickle," he said. "We need a modern, adaptable and diverse economy."
An ageing population and slow growth meant Hawke's Bay could face even worse workforce problems than the rest of the country.
Business Hawke's Bay would be officially launched in July, but already some work was taking place behind the scenes to get projects started. The chamber was focused on getting top businesspeople involved with council officers as advisers, rather than drivers.
Future Products Group founder and CEO Robert Darroch says it would take private sector involvement to drive business.
"It's a better way of doing it rather than relying on councils to drive growth. It's going to come from business owners."
FPG has offices in Europe, Asia and the United Kingdom and exports across the world.
Mr Darroch was born and bred in Hawke's Bay, and said there were advantages to being based here, and few disadvantages.
"The cost of living is low, the lifestyle is great and our customers love coming to Hawke's Bay," he said.
The only difficulty is finding experienced and appropriate people in Hawke's Bay to fill roles - a problem solved by having more businesses and more migration.
Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule saw population growth as necessary to the region's future, and said new businesses would drive immigration.
"People love living here. The only barrier is around employment," he said. "There are waiting lists for jobs based here."
More businesses meant more jobs, which was one of the major limitations for people wanting to move to the Bay.
Population growth rates from 1996 to 2010 showed Hawke's Bay was well behind the national average and comparable regions. New Zealand's population increased by 17.04 per cent while Hawke's Bay grew by just 5.6 per cent. In the same timeframe Nelson grew by 16 per cent and Bay of Plenty by 19.3 per cent. "Unless you address that kind of thing we will a lot less resilient in the future," Mr Yule said.
Lower populations made it harder to fund infrastructure such as public transport, and harder to justify big regional projects.
Mr Yule also saw the value in diversification.
"Primary production is always going to be the main stay of our economy but it suffers from vagaries of the weather and the market place. Diversification is key."
He is supportive of the initiative but any Hastings District Council involvement would have to go through the planning process when the final details were complete, Mr Yule said.
Staff had been in discussion with the Chamber of Commerce about what the council's role might be.