Working together: Leann Watson of Business Canterbury

The last few weeks have been busy again as we advocate on behalf of Canterbury businesses.

Recently, Ali Adams (CEO, ChristchurchNZ) and I flew to Wellington for a whirlwind tour of the big business ministries including MBIE and MFAT. The purpose of the trip was to reiterate Canterbury’s position as a powerhouse regional economy – with GDP and employment growth well above national averages – and significant capacity for further economic and population growth.
One of our messages we left the Government Officials with was: “If you haven’t visited Christchurch in the last three years, you haven’t visited Christchurch.”

While I was in Wellington, I also kicked off my quarterly meetings with the Prime Minister. Mr Luxon repeated his messaging I have heard in a few interactions now, which is that he expects his Government to have an adult-adult rather than a parent-child relationship with businesses.

His expectation is that businesses will be ambitious and proactively work with the Government in an equal partnership.

Here in Canterbury, we will also be presenting the Business Canterbury submission on the Christchurch City Council draft Long Term Plan this month.

We expect a significant focus for the council over the next 10 years to be improving its engagement with businesses, understanding the impacts of decisions on them, a greater focus on value for money for ratepayers including driving efficiencies, and more ambition for our city.