Waikato Business News September/October 2018

WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS September/October 2018
11
Te Waka ‘another
step in the journey’
A couple of weeks into his role as chief
executive of newly formed Waikato regional
development agency Te Waka, Michael
Bassett-Foss talked to Waikato Business
News about the job, the future and his
background. The following is a condensed
version of the interview.
What have you been doing
since you started?
A lot of talking to people. meeting
people, understanding their
aspirations.
There was talk in the early
stages about aquaculture. Is
that still part of the agenda?
Yes, totally. Waikato is made
up of lots of different independent
local areas with their own
aspirations and their unique set
of features. For Thames-Coromandel,
absolutely aquaculture
is one of their priorities.
And it aligns with the priorities
that came out of the summit
the other day. Where there's
regional priorities that align
with local we'll definitely get
into giving support.
Can you step me through
what the regional priorities
are?
They'll become clearer over
the coming weeks and months.
We have some urgency to get
something out but we don't
want to miss anything, so that's
the balance we've got. What
we've got is 19 aggregated priorities
building on the region's
strengths. Below the 19 priorities
there are many others that
didn't feature in the aggregated
list and there will be some gems
in there, so we need to go back
and look at that. Also we need
to lay over that what is already
going on in the region that we
just can't drop or is going to
add momentum to some of
those priorities. We're not about
writing strategies, we're about
doing some stuff. Over the next
weeks and months, we want
to go back to some of the key
stakeholders and bounce some
of those new priorities off them
and then broaden the circles and
engage with more and more as
we present the prioritised list.
What part does the Provincial
Growth Fund play?
The PGF has definitely influenced
the thinking. You don’t
do economic development
in a silo, you do it in collaboration
with other parties and
in partnerships. And some of
those partnerships are central
government, regional government,
local government. At
the moment central government
has a focus on regional
development, so we've got to
embrace that and align where
we can.
Is there a deadline coming
up?
Minister Shane Jones invited
us to go back and he had an
open door before the end of
the year. so we'll be looking at
October-November to go back
with some of those. But there
are already PGF applications
in play where we have been
involved and supported, so this
isn't starting from nothing.
What's your role in that
case? What can you add?
We can add a reasonable
amount. Firstly, where a local
area proposal or regional area
proposals aligns with priorities
we can come in and give
quite a bit of support, letters of
support in particular. And we
might be able to leverage other
support in to evaluate business
cases, critique certain areas,
especially when the idea or the
project influences other areas
of regional development, like
setting up a key piece of infrastructure.
You’ll be working with
stakeholders across the
region. What difference will
Te Waka make?
Standing back before I answer
that, because it's not all about
PGF proposals, Waikato has
been slow in coming to the
table with a regional economic
development agency. That's not
necessarily a bad thing, often
these things are better done at
the right time rather than rushed
at the wrong time. Despite that,
Waikato is doing very well. Part
of that is because of its natural
makeup, its geographical
location in New Zealand, the
regions it borders with in the
golden triangle, its very rich
natural environment, and the
people it has. So it's got a lot
of good things going on. But
in the reports that were done in
the years leading up to the formation
of Te Waka it was cited
that the economic development
frameworks within the region
weren't joined or linked up,
they were very different across
the region. Much of that is
appropriate because each local
identity has its own makeup and
its own aspirations, so that will
continue, but where you can get
alignment and more joined-up
focus on priorities you've got a
much better chance of getting
them done. Again, we won't be
doing it all. Some of the priorities
that come through this
conference we will absolutely
lead where it's appropriate.
Others we will partner, collaborate,
even “coerce” other
organisations that are already
in the space. And others are
just not appropriate for us to be
involved in. There's a blurred
line between economic development
and social development
and Te Waka at the moment is
focused on economic development.
If you were to look ahead
two years, what would you
want to be able to show?
What I'd like to be able to do
is celebrate with others some
of the good things that we've
done. And I say “we” because
it's not just Te Waka. In order to
do that you need to build trust
and respect and that takes time,
it might well take two years
or longer. Part of that will be
around partnerships and collaboration,
part of it is about
supporting others. I think in the
economic development space
there is always many more
opportunities than there are
things you can actually deliver.
So to be true to what we are
here for, we do need to focus on
some priority areas.
Are you recruiting?
Te Waka is in a startup phase.
Aside from the already
Continued on page 17
Michael Bassett-Foss
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Waikato Branch – Upcoming events/courses
At the Institute of Directors
we’re on the pulse of governance.
Connecting, equipping and
inspiring directors through thought
leadership and our extensive
network, professional governance
courses, events and resources.
12 September 2018
Customer Governance Considerations in The World of Data
Speaker – Frank van der Velden, Touchpoint
12.00pm – 2.00pm, FMG Stadium Waikato
6 November 2018
New Member Welcome Lunch function (invite only)
12.00pm – 2.00pm, FMG Stadium Waikato
CPD: 2 points
CPD: 2 points
To register, please contact:
Megan Beveridge,
Branch Manager
Waikato.branch@iod.org.nz,
021 358772 or www.iod.org.nz
14 November 2018
NFP Summit
4.00pm – 6.30pm, FMG Stadium Waikato
CPD: 2 points
Waikato branch is kindly sponsored by:
J1121P