Regional prosperity actions under way with governance to follow

HBREDS programme Manager Alister King said it was making good progress one year on.

The biggest plan for regional prosperity is off to a good start but its long-term governance is yet to be finalised.

The Hawke's Bay Regional Economic Development Strategy (HBREDS) launch was the result of a two-year effort by businesses, iwi, councils and government agencies to produce a comprehensive plan to grow the region's economy by increasing jobs and household incomes.

The plan came with specified actions and one year on implementation was well under way, said HBREDS Governance Group co-chairman Wayne Jack.

He said hundreds of new jobs had been created as part of Project 1000 - an initiative led by the Ministry of Social Development to create 1000 jobs over a three-year period - and roading projects to improve access to Napier Port had begun.

Last year the then Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said central government expected delivery of the planned actions but "ultimately the region has got to lead it".

The Governance Group is finalising a long-term governance and implementation delivery model, HBREDS programme manager Alister King said.

"We have a board that functions at the moment but it is really the formalisation of that process that we are working towards," he said.

Appointed in January, Dr King said he had expected the delivery model to be finalised by June, but now the end of September was likely.

"Once we have the delivery model finalised the reality is we will start the process of who was going to be on that board - the stakeholders themselves."

Business Hawke's Bay chairman Stuart McLauchlan said the economic development agency was holding off appointing a CEO until the HBREDS delivery model was finalised and the agency's role ascertained. Former CEO Susan White left to take up a new position in April.

"It is taken longer than we would have hoped and we certainly hope that it will be resolved in the very near future," Mr McLauchlan said.

"We can't get out and do what we want to be doing - we've been put in a holding pattern."

Dr King said there were probably more than 30 stakeholders to be incorporated into the long-term delivery model.

"It is about how they all have a voice into that mechanism - that is why the delivery model has taken quite some time to be able to be able to come back to the region and say look, we have a mechanism where everybody has a democratic voice."

He said it would likely have a 12-member board, each representing stakeholders.

"The reality is not every stakeholder can have an immediate representation on the board. We are saying would like to limit that to say, a 12-member board."

The delivery model would adapt to meet evolving needs and priorities.

"A good example of this is the recent announcement of additional $50 million government funding to help at-risk young people into employment or training across four regions, including Hawke's Bay. This investment in the region will amplify existing initiatives like Project 1000 and create new programmes to help those not in employment, education or training."