HB brand works well: PM

JONATHAN DOW
Branding what comes from Hawke's Bay is an idea worth working on, Prime Minister Helen Clark told a regional business development forum in Napier yesterday.
Miss Clark bought four cabinet ministers and three local Labour MPs to the regional business forum at Mission Estate Winery, Napier.
John Morrell, president of the Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce, said that having various sector groups work together, particularly when it came to exporting, was one of the best ideas to come from the forum.
Hawke's Bay has done well for the "last six years or so", Miss Clark told the forum yesterday, but the time is ripe for economic transformation.
What changes were needed was described by representatives of five sectors of the Hawke's Bay economy.
The compulsory microchipping of working farm dogs was raised by several speakers, as was other excessive regulations and taxes and that they could not get broadband internet access.
With "economic transformation" in mind, four of Miss Clark's cabinet ministers led workshops that discussed the issues Hawke's Bay businesses face and ways to overcome these problems.
The forum ended with Miss Clark responding to some of the issues and ideas raised by the speakers and in the workshops.
"How to market and brand what comes from this region - I thought that was really worth working on," she said.
She laughed when ribbed about microchipping, but did not broach the subject.
"The government is preparing to be very bold," when it came to broadband, she said.
On the ownership of the Hawke's Bay Airport: "Michael (Cullen) tells me we are due to be considering a paper soon on the structure of regional airports where we still have a share."
The Hawke's Bay tourism industry was unhappy with the "100% Pure New Zealand" branding of New Zealand as a destination for tourists to see glaciers and bungy jump.
"Clearly you have so many other things," Miss Clark said. The workshops identified issues, such as the seasonal labour supply, and came up with solutions such as changing the timing of the secondary and tertiary school year - which Miss Clark said would involve changing the Kiwi psyche - to removing any "disincentives" for beneficiaries not to work.
"We actually need to do something about these issues," Mr Morrell said.
"The government now understands what the issues are," he said.
The chamber plans to follow up the issues and solutions identified in the workshops and has scheduled the next business development forum for September 14.