Waikato regional economic profile - Waikato Regional Council

Infrastructure: physical networks, principally transport, water, energy andcommunications are crucial to supporting export-led growth. This chapterdescribes the state, issues and opportunities for regional infrastructure.People: The characteristics of the population significantly affect the potential foreconomic growth. This chapter describes the demographics of the people andcommunities of the region and the availability of labour and skills.Natural resources: the Waikato region is endowed with extensive naturalresources which provide the foundations for the Waikato economy. This chapterenables a better understanding the current state of these resources, potentialconstraints and values and their impact on how the economy could grow infuture.Institutions: central and local government institutions set the rules of the gamethrough regulation and can contribute overtly to growth through active supportfor firms and sectors. This chapter summarises local government economicdevelopment activities in the region currently.Iwi: iwi that have rohe in the region are re-emerging both as part of thegovernance framework and also as an economic force in their own right. Thischapter describes them and some of their economic activities and summarisesthose Treaty of Waitangi settlements with financial/commercial redress.Business and industry: firms are the key players in the economy. This chapterdiscusses the demographics and performance of firms and significant sectors inthe region.Capital: firms gaining access to finance on acceptable terms is crucial foreconomic development. This chapter describes the sources of finance availablefor firms at various growth stages.Innovation system: is vital for sustainable economic development. Thischapter describes the education, research and commercialisation sub-systemthat supports firms to develop new products and processes.The profile draws on a wide range of informants and secondary sources. Much of theindustry-related primary data is drawn from the Economic Futures Model obtained bythe Waikato Regional Council (WRC). The Economic Futures Model is based on amulti-regional economic input-output table of commodities flows between industries,constructed using a system of supply and use. The New Zealand commodity-byindustrymodel was regionalised using the Simple Location Quotient technique andinter-regional trade flows were determined using an optimisation approach. The latestyear for which this regional economic data is available is 2007.Detailed employment data is sourced from the Statistics New Zealand business frameand business demography tables. The latest data available is 2011. Regionalhousehold income figures are sourced from the annual income survey (2011), andunemployment figures are available at regional level from the quarterly householdlabour force survey (2012) but territorial authority break-downs are only available fromthe 2006 census. Sub-national population characteristics are also sourced from the2006 census. Statistics New Zealand tourism research and data is available from theMinistry of Business, Innovation and Employment.1.2 PurposeThe purpose of the regional economic profile is to provide information so that everyonecan have a shared understanding of the economic issues and opportunities facing theregion and take steps collaboratively to address these. It will therefore be useful todecision makers, analysts, entrepreneurs and students.The profile will also inform WRC as it determines its next steps to enable regionaldevelopment. WRC already holds much information about the state of Waikato’senvironment but relatively little is known about the region’s economy. This profiletherefore informs WRC’s discussions about the relationship between economic andenvironmental issues, within a broader discussion about its role in contributing tocommunity wellbeing.Doc # 2069885 Page 3