How to Improve Economic Outcomes
In my previous thought piece here, I outlined the compelling case to build a community and disaster resilient Wellington and save $100m per annum through a reduction in Government services such as mental health, benefits and criminal justice etc.
This thought piece is to outline how to improve economic outcomes.
The objective is to lift all scores to 80% by 2030.
The 5-year trend graph below shows:
· Capabilities (greater than 80%) are basic abilities and life skills
· Capabilities (between 60% and 80%) are degree of satisfaction with main job, and degree of satisfaction with main job income, requiring attention
· vulnerabilities (less than 60%) are a lack of confidence in finding in a job and declining paid work hours, requiring urgent attention
In 2025 The NZ Treasury stated here that real GDP growth of around 3% is expected over the next three years, led by the export sector. It is unclear how Wellington will participate in primary export led growth.
Wellingtons competitive advantage is its proximity to government, the research and science cohort, the universities, the peak bodies and not for profits, healthcare, culture and the media while leveraging technology.
One of my five aspirations is a city where there is healthy competition and sustainable cooperation. So why not focus efforts on our competitive advantage by attracting and retaining businesses that generate jobs and economic growth.
The options going forward must be focussed on improving public value by progressively moving up the value chain. This requires Government investment and a phased solution delivered by public and private sector leaders with more commercial finance ,less regulation and more enabling economic infrastructure to:
· Survive: Enhance productivity and meet needs through knowledge and time (Maximise tertiary)
· Revive: Knowledge orientated products and services (Maximise quaternary)
· Thrive: Leveraging the partnership between private and public leaders and the tertiary institutions (Maximise quinary)
Each option would transparently show the costs and benefits from an economic, social, cultural and environmental perspective for decision makers to identify the preferred option and way forward. It is likely the preferred “public value” option is Thrive. To be affordable and achievable this will need to be phased starting with Survive for the first three years, then Revive for 3 years and then Thrive.
This would require the Government to reprioritise its existing investment programme to initiatives that deliver, in the words of the Minister of Finance, “better bank for buck” and better public value.
Next steps
· In my next thought pieces, I will explain the choices we have to improve environmental outcomes and how the choices could be phased over 10 years to Survive, then Revive and then Thrive.
· I would love to collaborate with others who are working in this space, trying to solve similar problems, please leave a comment.
Previous thought pieces
To date, my thought pieces have covered what’s needed to achieve a better society, what many recent publications are saying about this, my favourite quotes about this, and that all ideologies have elements about the improvement of society through participation in decision making. I also covered that communities need investment to be resilient and speak with their voices to influence Government decision-making, and that Government seems to recognise the need for place-based solutions drawn from local intelligence. I also went through what I am doing to be part of the solution with my Better Decisions Better Outcomes approach to develop a Portfolio Business Case to inform a start-up decision on the best public value, commercially viable, affordable and achievable initiatives to achieve a better society. See here for my past thought pieces.