Regional Development Strategy

At the November 2019 hui of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, the Regional Development Strategy – a pou within the Haea te Awa programme – was approved.

The core principle driving the Regional Development Strategy is:

Enable papatipu rūnanga and whānau to achieve economic self-determination in order to improve whānau outcomes.

The Regional Development Strategy is designed to achieve:

Growth of papatipu rūnanga assets and balance sheets
Improved employment and business ownership opportunities for whānau
Increased mana and presence within the takiwā of each papatipu rūnanga

The strategy aims to provide assistance, both in terms of expertise and capital, to allow papatipu rūnanga to make investments within their own takiwā. It will not be a centrally controlled function, instead it is intended to facilitate and help papatipu rūnanga develop and make their own decisions and investments.

To implement the Regional Development Strategy, we will first need to:

Set up a regional investment fund to invest alongside papatipu rūnanga in regional investment opportunities
Create a separate entity (i.e. outside of the Office and Ngāi Tahu Holdings) to manage the fund and engage with papatipu rūnanga

What happens next?

The aim is to have the fund established and ‘open for business’ by 1 July 2020. Between now and July, the following steps will be taken:

An establishment committee will oversee the set-up of the functions
A legal entity will be established
An establishment leader will be appointed
Investment criteria will be put in place
Capital and operating budgets will be allocated by Te Rūnanga
There will be a further round of engagements with papatipu rūnanga