business support

Tukituki MP Anna Lorck backs this up by saying government will continue to invest in projects that support the region that provide ongoing confidence through infrastructure investment. This will keep the economy moving by providing a pipeline of work to keep people in jobs.

Both Stuart and Anna say there continues to be a high level of optimism that the Hawke’s Bay economy will continue to perform better than other less diversified regions.

“I have a lot of optimism in the Hawke’s Bay economy as it has proven to be particularly resilient over the past couple of years; due mainly to the fact that we produce goods and services that are reasonably recession-proof.

“Having said that, history has proven that both households and businesses tend on concentrate on reducing debt in times of economic uncertainty. This may have a cooling impact on our regional economy,” he says.

Anna says she recently met a local landscaping business owner who said he had enough work ahead for the next seven years. It’s conversations like these, with people locally, that give me confidence in Hawke’s Bay and that we are well positioned, especially with the pipeline infrastructure work and ongoing private and public investment we are seeing across the region.

In 2023 the Government has already committed over $350m for housing and infrastructure programmes which will continue to stimulate demand across a range of industries.

Stuart adds that the roll out of Industry transformation plans across tourism, forestry and advanced manufacturing will also have positive impacts on the regional economy.

A capable and work-ready workforce has also been a key focus with over 1800 people on Government’s free apprenticeship boost, – learning and earning, which at the same time is growing a skilled future workforce, along with an increase in the RSE worker numbers to a record 19,000.

Tourism

“This has a major impact on providing seasonal workforce security and confidence for our growers while also growing more permanent jobs for locals and young people into the industry,” Anna says.

As Minister for Small Business Stuart attended the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris in late 2022, chairing the Digital for SMEs (D4SME) Steering Group meeting and the 4th Roundtable of the OECD D4SME Global Initiative.

A key takeaway was that Innovation and digitisation are vital for the continued survival of many small businesses across the Bay, he says.

“I have often said that this is the last generation of business owner who will survive, let alone thrive, without being digitally enabled. It’s one of the reasons why we have developed Digital Boost – a free series of around 400 videos for small business owners to undertake their digital journey.”

Stuart says challenges impacting on the economy that are on his portfolio radar in 2023 are the impacts of Russia’s war with Ukraine and increase interest rates for home owners and businesses.

“As global supply chains return to a form of postpandemic equilibrium, inflation should return to within the reserve bank’s target range. The wild card is Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, this could continue to keep up the price of food and fuel.