Economy hothouse for North

So much hard work, so much more to come, said Northland MP Mike Sabin, thanking all attendees at his two-part Northland Economic Summit.

"Talk is not enough," he said, wrapping up the second session at Toll Stadium this week. About 200 Northland leaders attended each session; one at Waitangi last month and this week's in Whangarei.

One challenge in learning how to speak with one voice on what Northland needed was that the region had always had "a lot of good people with a lot of good ideas for taking the region forward but a very piecemeal approach to bringing it all together", he said.

The summit had brought all the players together to look at how to lift Northland economic performance.

"This is not about political agendas, not a talkfest, it's about leadership and producing a collective vision and actioning it," he said.

He commended the group for coming to the forum with open minds "taking this trip into open space ... I hope you enjoyed the ride".

He said the Maori economy had the potential to be "an absolute circuit-breaker" and "become part of the thriving heart of Northland, at the heart of the engine room".

This was underscored by Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples, who attended with Minister for Economic Development Steven Joyce.

Dr Sharples said while certain areas of Maori society were being held back through lack of jobs and education on the other hand, the Maori economy was going ahead in leaps and bounds. It was important that this was factored into the summit's deliberations.

Mr Joyce spoke at the event and took part in one of the workshops; last month Minister of Finance Bill English lent the same support to the first part of the summit.

The second session was focused on thrashing out action plans, with attendees from industry, business, iwi and local government breaking into nine sector groups to do the hard yards.

The buzz words were "identifying, prioritising and developing responses to common enablers and constrainers of economic development" in Northland.

Fourteen people were appointed to the new Northland Economic Advisory Group which will liaise closely with the Northland Regional Council's newly blended Enterprise Northland (economic development) and Destination Northland (tourism).

The NRC has amalgamated the groups to cut costs and streamline promotion of economic development.

NRC chairman Craig Brown said Enterprise Northland's role had been to assist regional development and bring interested parties together, but the new policy meant it was mandated to actively seek initiatives to benefit the regional economy, create jobs, and recommend eligible projects for funding through the NRC Investment and Growth Reserve Fund. The new strategy was signalled in the council's draft 2012-2022 Long Term Plan and approved.