BOP Regional Economic Development

I have been invited to attend the Bay of Plenty Regional Economic Development Forum, to be held in Rotorua tomorrow morning. The purpose of the Forum is to identify strategic priorities to boost regional economic development.

I have received no shortage of pre-Forum briefing documents. The Bay of Plenty Regional Governance Group has clearly been busy.

The Forum provides me with a platform to press the case for greater engagement between the tertiary education sector (University) and the private business sector in the Research & Development space. It is becoming a bit of a hobby horse of mine. I guess that is down to my personal experience of this engagement back in the UK. In London, there was a choice of Universities to engage with. In Tauranga and surrounding districts, there is none. The impact on economic development is real.

The Forum's Agenda includes short presentations from Environmental Bay of Plenty, the Ministry of Economic Development and NZ Trade & Enterprise. There then follow sessions identifying the key strategic regional priorities.

This Forum and its stakeholders are the backbone for future development strategy. The challenge will be coordinating the disparate interests of the different stakeholders in the room. As one of the few private sector delegates invited, it will for me be an interesting take on public sector co-operation in action.