Last week the BayBuzz editor pronounced the HB Regional Economic Development Agency’s (HBREDA) research into the economy as disappointing, despite noting that it was useful for ‘’grounding ‘where to from here’ discussions’’.

This was exactly the point of the research so maybe the editor should re-evaluate his emotional response to what is high-quality research that shines a light on some of our challenges and opportunities as a region.

HBREDA commissioned Infometrics and MartinJenkins to review our regional economy so that we could understand its performance over the last five years and its challenges and opportunities for the future. The team reviewed economic data, delved into any and every relevant report that’s been produced in the last ten years, and went out and interviewed nearly 70 businesses, councils, and post-settlement governance entities (PSGEs) to get on-the-ground insights. 

There are actually four reports that have come out of this work and they can be found on our website: www.hbreda.co.nz/research. These reports include a review of past economic performance, an employment outlook, an industry and sector analysis, and a report that focuses on challenges and opportunities. They collectively show that, despite a vibrant business community, our region is hampered by lower than average productivity, a fragile transport system, water and energy constraints, and a skills shortage.

The research identifies ten industry value chains with the greatest potential to drive value and employment growth in Hawke’s Bay, with four of those being in the emerging category. These are not plucked out of the air but are identified through careful analysis of the data to show they are of ‘’significant scale, are reasonably concentrated in the region, have demonstrated growth in employment, have large flow-on impacts to other industries, and have further potential for growth based on what is known about resource availability and national or offshore market demand.’’ 

A twenty-year vision for the region and a wish list of all the types of cutting-edge businesses we wish would spring up here was most certainly outside of the scope of this research. 

The research does provide direction for how we can address some of our challenges and opportunities. We are particularly interested in those areas that can be addressed at a regional level, such as skills and infrastructure because Government and regulatory authorities have the levers to improve those. 

It would have been an over-reach, and frankly ill-advised, to undertake a comprehensive analysis of our HB economy, publish the findings, and then have a hack at providing all the solutions in one go. 

It is going to take a lot more work than that and so it should because this stuff is not easy. 

The first step is a regional consensus about the shape of our economy. Our focus now should be on reading the work, discussing it, thinking about it, then regrouping in the New Year to work on ‘’what’s next’’. 

Merry Christmas from HBREDA.