Executive Summary

New Zealand is made up of sixteen regional economies, of which Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are the main urban centres, the other thirteen regions are predominately rural in location and are resource based economies which are the drivers of our primary production.

Māori have significant interests which span the width and breadth of the primary sector, the potential for growing the Maori primary sector assets is massive, the “size of the prize” is understood by central and local government representatives and as such have identified the growth of the Maori primary sector as a key theme to economic growth in the regions.

Central to discussion s are the strategies put in place at a national and regional level that aspire to grow the Maori primary sector, discussions will identify barriers to growth and how the implementation of the strategies intend to lower the barriers to growth.

Key considerations to be discussed will focus on: the implementation of the growth strategies ; who has ultimate responsibility for implementation; the level of collaboration required by central government, resource owners and key regional community stakeholders to realise growth: and the level of resource allocation required to leverage opportunities.