FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Strong GDP Growth In Porirua Puts Focus On Council Performance

The spectacular growth in Porirua’s economy creates significant challenges for the Porirua City Council, said the Chairperson of the City Services Committee of the Porirua City Council.

BERL statistics show that the growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in Porirua City has increased more rapidly than in any other local authority area.

Councillor Shaw said recent work shows we need to provide more sites from which businesses can operate. “We need to extend the range of accommodation classes we provide for businesses and integrate sites into an overall design for the City.”

“Two current exercises move us towards important decisions. First, there is the rolling review of the District Plan. This enables us to shape up the objectives in different parts of the City.”

“We must set firm boundaries within the City for different forms of activity. Our residential areas have to be world class, but equally our business areas must also be world class.”

Cr Shaw said the best part of the new BERL statistics is the growth in our gross domestic product. Porirua City leads the whole of New Zealand in this vital indicator.

The growth in gross domestic product for Porirua City at 13% is dramatically ahead of the rest of the country. The next strongest area was Horowhenua and Porirua was 30% ahead of them.

“Our goal must be to make the people who are in our City richer and happier.”

“The GDP statistics show we are getting richer more quickly than people elsewhere are, and that is a major success for us.”

“Porirua should strive to keep its population down – that is the secret to maintaining our quality of life. The New Zealand life style is distinguished by informality, free access to the coast, wide-open green spaces, and sport.”

“Equally, at work we are entrepreneurial, innovative, and gifted. All these things support the notion that we should seek to develop the income of businesses in the City in economic sectors that thrive on innovation and generate exports from our City.”

Councillor Shaw said his Council was very grateful to the local business people who give so much time to the necessary planning exercises that engage the Council.

“There is a Porirua way of doing things and it involves talking to each other and pushing for rapid action,” he added.

Further information is on the Porirua Wellington Web Blog www.porirua.net

[In 2004 Porirua City took 36th position out of 73. In 2005 this improved to 29th but in 2006 it jumped to 13th. This in itself hides a very strong performance in GDP growth and employment growth. Against these two counts Porirua scored 1st and 2nd out of all local authority areas. In terms of GDP the City’s growth at 13% exceeded that of the next best performing area (Horowhenua) by 30%]

Ends

© Scoop Media