The Whakatāne District Council has signalled a likely increase in funding for economic development and tourism and events promotion from 2015/16 onwards.

Increased funding was one of the key recommendations in a report on the future direction for economic development, which was received by the Council’s Policy Committee last week. The Committee agreed in principle to the inclusion of a total budget of $1.1 million (excluding overheads) for growth-related activities in the draft 2015-25 Long Term Plan, which will be released for community consultation in April next year. The current budget for events, district promotion, tourism and economic development activities is just under $579,000.

Speaking to the report, Councillor Scott Jarrett, who chaired the meeting in place of Mayor Tony Bonne, noted that the funding proposal and the key focus areas it related to had been developed in consultation with, and were strongly supported by the Grow Whakatāne Advisory Board. “We can’t put a growth strategy into action without funding and this proposal provides a platform for progress.”

Deputy Mayor Judy Turner said that compared to the investment other regions were making in the economic development arena, the District’s current budget was “minimal”.

“Regional economic development is a competitive environment and to seriously address the social inequality issues we face, we need a targeted approach to job creation and growing our economy,” she said. “That won’t happen if we’re not prepared to resource it properly.”

Councillor John Pullar also observed that “you don’t get anything for nothing”. “This is a ‘need-to-have’, not a ‘nice-to-have’. We do have to invest wisely, but if we don’t invest, the District will wither and die, so I support additional funding.”

The report set out six key areas and proposed actions flowing from the Grow Whakatāne Strategy, highlighting the need to galvanise community support and leadership to drive the desired growth outcomes. Areas of competitive advantage where particular effort would be focused to “unlock economic opportunities” included:

• Leveraging the Council’s ownership of strategic land holdings
• Promoting economic opportunities associated with the area’s solar energy resources
• Maximising the commercial and recreational opportunities of the Whakatāne River and harbour
• Utilising the Council’s fibre network to drive the development of ultra-fast broadband-related commercial activity
• Establishing the District as an eco-tourism hub for national and international visitors
• Delivering a national branding strategy positioning Whakatāne as the ‘sunshine capital’
• Developing partnerships with iwi to facilitate their economic and commercial aspirations

Committee members also noted the outcomes of the recent Communitrak community perception survey, which saw business promotion, efforts to attract and retain residents, tourism promotion, and event promotion all ranked in the top five service areas where ratepayers believed greater spending was required.