Penny Gaylor.
Weekly column by Kāpiti's Greater Wellington Regional Council representative Penny Gaylor.
For all businesses the focus is on recovery, sustainability and growth.
For all of us we are thinking how we can support our local business sector, such as buying local, simple, practical, effective.
On Saturday night I walked along from my house to check out the Night Market.
Since kicking off in the past few weeks the market has proved very popular and a great success for those selling products there.
The night time version was a huge success.
Build it and they will come - and indeed they did, and in their droves.
This innovation was a result of the business sector meeting the market, as they say - quite literally.
On another front, recently I attended a Greater Wellington Regional Council hui in Ōtaki to discuss our work on developing a Māori economic development strategy for the region.
The Kāpiti Coast hui was possible thanks to the support from a Māori Advisory Ohu.
Work on gathering ideas and feedback for the strategy has been under way for many months, and while the planned series of hui around the region were affected by Covid-19 lockdown, collating the ideas of completed hui continued during lockdown, and is still being progressed.
The hui was a great opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas with the Māori community in Ōtaki on the key opportunities and challenges with regard to social, cultural, political, environmental and economic development.
There was a great turnout and we hope to be able to reflect this kōrero in the soon to be launched strategy.
The hui was held in the Amatiatia office in Ōtaki.
As I learned, Amatiatia Ltd is a kaupapa driven private company with six wahine directors, set up to provide Māori organisations with secretariat, management, executive, and governance support.
The hui included local iwi representatives, Māori in education, Māori business owners, whānau and people working in the area of supporting Māori businesses.
In the next couple of months GWRC is planning to release the strategy as a website, to make it accessible for Māori businesses and communities across the region.
As with any strategy, implementation is the key.
Already some thinking has gone into the potential structure to enable Māori to lead and take ownership in the oversight and Implementation of the strategy.
For GWRC, our efforts are towards supporting businesses and that is what underpins the commitment we made to undertake this work.
