northland chamber

ADVOCATE COLUMN 1st WEEK JULY 2011
One thing the Northland Chamber of Commerce has struggled with in recent times – and possibly in the past – is engaging with certain sectors of the business community. I do not think we are unique in our failings and I imagine other organisations also have difficulties connecting with these same sectors of the community. The unfortunate thing is that while there has been much hand-wringing and navel gazing on how Northland can move forward, there seems to be little meaningful progress in including the two groups within the community that will over time make a real difference to growing Northland.

With Northland having the second highest proportion of Māori nationally and the second lowest proportion of people aged 15 to 64 years, clearly two groups critical to our future and to realising Northland’s real potential are Māori and youth. These are the people who will provide tomorrow’s leaders and innovators, yet often they appear to be excluded from the conversations about where we are going and how we are going to get there.

Being on the wrong side of middle-aged and of predominantly European descent I am not qualified to say why there is an unwillingness to engage but I imagine it results from these groups either perceiving we lack relevance to them or that they do not feel sufficiently empowered to engage in the process. Either way the challenge is one that organisations such as ours will need to resolve. If we accept that business and the community are interconnected and that youth and Māori are part of the same community then we need to actively create an environment in which they will want to participate in.

This is not to say that Māori do not already feature strongly in the Region’s economy. They participate and contribute at many levels and through a diverse range of business structures. While economic development at a macro level often needs to be sector focused and relatively generic with one size fitting all, that does not mean that regional characteristics should not be taken into account. At a business development level, Northland needs to develop frameworks that act as enablers for all. Our population is too small to exclude any potential entrepreneurs and innovators. This means that we must work to find ways to be relevant to and to assist those who have potential to grow our economy.