Regional development strategy - RDA South

22.6REGIONAL PROFILEStakeholder views2.6 Stakeholder viewsREGIONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR THE ECONOMIC REGION SOUTHWide-spread ConsultationDuring the preliminary efforts to organize aregional partnership of stakeholders for thedevelopment process, RDA South carried out aseries of stakeholder interviews to obtainviews about the health of the regional economyand how changes could or should be madeto industry development to improve the economicperformance; and, to identify developmentopportunities and initiatives whichcould stimulate growth and development ofthe Economic Region South’s economy in thefuture. The stakeholder consultation has beenundertaken in parallel streams with all mainstakeholder groups.Local Governments have been consulted togain their views on the future direction of theregional economy, with particular emphasison publicly owned assets and their development.Face-to-face interviews and discussionshave been conducted with a range of keybusiness, media and NGO stakeholders.Members of the CPWG are confident thatthose leaders consulted are representative andtheir views authoritative. This process of consultationhas identified any issues whichstand in the way of development and willbuild consensus in addressing them.Views on Development OpportunitiesThere is a strong desire by production sector intervieweesand service sector interviewees fromEconomic Region South to see “Investment instart-up projects”. All groups mentioned this asa development opportunity during the initialstakeholder consultation. There is also a commonbelief amongst interviewees from the productionand the service sectors that ER Southhas a strong competitive advantage with its resourcesrelated to tourism and agriculture. Intervieweesindicated that “Horticultural productionand processing” and “Tourism” are theareas with the most development potential inthe South Economic Region.Views on Development IssuesManagement Issues, including: “Lack of collaboration/coordination”,“Lack of leadership/poor leadership” and “insufficient support onthe part of local governments”, are according tosome stakeholder communities the main issuesfacing the economic sectors in the RegionSouth. These are followed by Labour Force Issues,including “Lack of skilled labour”, “Employment/labourissues” and “Education needsunmet”. Infrastructure, including “Electricity”and “Transport”, is also seen as an impedimentto development both by production and servicesectors. Labour and general Infrastructure issueswere seen, however, as challenges to bedealt with in a more of a longer term perspectiveas opposed to the need to urgently deployquicker-impact sector oriented measures.ImplicationsThere is a strong desire by business and servicesector interviewees to invest in the RegionSouth. They recognised that management andlabour force issues are standing in the way ofsignificant investment and hence economic developmentof the region and they need to bedealt with by the strategy. At the same time,consultation revealed that many businessesand economic oriented stakeholders wereaware of realistic development opportunitiesfor the Southern Region’s economy. Many weretaking independent initiatives to realise theseopportunities and were positive as to the strategicdevelopment role that REDS might have infuture. Interestingly, a significant number ofstakeholders have also expressed the need forincreased leadership and coordination in economicdevelopment at the regional scale.Influence on Strategy FormulationThe views of the stakeholders informed theRDA Team conducting the preliminary analysisof growth prospects and potential of thesouthern regional economy. They also informedthe CPWG members in its formulationof the Strategy goals, objectives and implementationinitiatives.22