northland chamber

ADVOCATE COLUMN 4th WEEK AUGUST 2012 With the entries for this year’s Westpac Northland Business Excellence Awards now closed I thought it would be worth revisiting another business award event that took place recently. That was the Te Tai Tokerau Maori Business of the year 2012 which was held in July in conjunction with the Te Hiringa Maori Business Expo. This was a thoroughly enjoyable and encouraging series of events that highlighted the achievements of Maori businesses, the whanau directing and supporting the enterprises and the unique Maori perspective that characterises their success. The overall winner this year was Kaikohe Scrap Dealers owned and operated by Gavin and Tahu Robertson. The convenor of judges, Steve Bennett highlighted “their winning formula based on manaakitanga, whanaungatanga and aroha ki te tangata. They embrace values of integrity, respect and honour in the way they do business which has won the admiration of its peers and confidence of Tai Tokerau hapori.” I would suggest that these values would stand any business in good stead when endeavouring to create a sustainable economic future. This event was very important to Northland for so many reasons. The success of our regional economy is strongly related to the success of Northland’s Maori economy. Lifting the performance of Maori business benefits all our communities. The success of this year’s entrants shows the value of raising the aspirations and capabilities of whanau to achieve this. Improved capability will grow capital and investment through higher income, greater savings and increased financial literacy. The Maori population is young and expected to grow significantly over the next decade. Their proportion of Northland’s workforce will continue to grow in the future and this workforce in a position to influence and contribute to our economic future. As a point of interest as to why under performance of this sector of our economy should not be underestimated is the unrealised potential benefit to our region. BERL recently estimated that the Maori asset base totals at least $36.9 billion nationally. Based on their modelling if the level of productivity in the Maori economy is lifted to equal the national level by 2061, the GDP contribution from the Maori economy could be $12.1 billion higher than it otherwise would be and there could be 148,000 more job opportunities. This transformation will require strengthening capability of Maori business and increased collaboration. Events such as Te Hiringa Maori Business Expo have a valuable role to play in this process.