The leaders of the region’s five councils have acknowledged Business Hawke’s Bay’s (BHB) decision to wind up its operations, and thanked the organisation for the valuable work it has done.

They say they’re heartened to hear from BHB that it’s committed to working constructively with the councils to enable its activities like the Business Hubs, programmes of work and people to transition to a new regional development organisation when it’s established.

The leaders say they appreciate that this is a difficult and uncertain time and want to reiterate the councils’ commitment to keep the Business Hubs open and operational.

The councils expect to begin conversations with BHB about the transition process in the next few days and will share more detail as this progresses.

Matariki, which is the Hawke’s Bay regional development strategy and partnership across central & local government, iwi & hapū and the private sector is also acknowledging the hard work the staff at BHB have done, working to grow the business community.

“BHB has been one of our important partners in the inception, development and success of our Matariki economic strategy. But now it's time for the next step in the evolution of our highly collaborative approach to economic development,” says Matariki Governance Group co-chair, Central Hawke’s Bay Mayor Alex Walker.

“Matariki has successfully built partnerships and collaboration in Hawke’s Bay and now is the time to advance this into a co-designed agency, to drive socially inclusive economic success for all,” adds co-chair Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa chairman, Leon Symes. 

Over the past three weeks, all five councils have formally received the report on local government investment in business and industry support across the region. They have agreed to further investigation and refinement of how to build a new regional economic development agency and transition plan, which will be co-designed with Matariki partners, industry and other regional stakeholders.

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