Christchurch's lead economic agency is defending its role, after a former mayor said the organisation needed to be more ambitious.
Former Christchurch mayor Garry Moore. Photo: Christchurch Dilemmas
ChristchurchNZ was established in July 2017 as a replacement for Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism, the Christchurch Development Corporation, and the Christchurch City Council's major events team.
But a former mayor, Garry Moore, said he believed ChristchurchNZ was focusing too much on promotion, at the expense of economic development.
"The tourism group is quite strong, but the economic development group needs some work done on it," he said.
"It's easy to get distracted by PR and spin, and it is much harder to work with someone who is unemployed or somebody who has a business idea that they can't get to go."
The organisation is largely funded by the Christchurch ratepayer, with $10.2 million of a $14 million dollar annual budget coming from the council.
It was also seeking a $1.4 million dollar seed fund as part of the council's upcoming long term plan, with $750,000 of that earmarked for major events.
Current performance measures laid out in the council's draft plan charged ChristchurchNZ to provide leadership in economic development, facilitate business development, encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and investment, lead city promotion and attract events.
But Mr Moore said that was not ambitious enough, and he told the council as part a long-term plan submission last week that it needed a rethink.
"ChristchurchNZ, the Christchurch City Council and Christchurch City Holdings, which has massive assets, should be leading the way of saying to the universities and the research institutions 'where are the new jobs?' and 'where is the new economy?'," he said.
"If you look at the centre of Christchurch...that should be filled with young people, with new businesses, trading there and trading with the world - that is economic development."
'Bold ambitions'
However, ChristchurchNZ's chief executive Joanna Norris, previously the editor of The Press, has defended her organisation's approach.
"We should have really high, bold ambitions for Christchurch, and we certainly do," she said.
Ms Norris, who has been in the role since October 2017, said work around tourism and promotions was an essential part of economic development.
"Economic development is fuelled by visitor activity, the more visitors we have - whether they are tourists, business visitors...that all stimulates economic activity which leads to growth in the local economy," she said.
"We promote Christchurch because it supports economic development."
ChristchurchNZ's chief executive Joanna Norris. Photo: Fairfax NZ
Ms Norris said ChristchurchNZ had also provided help to 600 Christchurch businesses in their first year.
This involved an individual case manager working with the businesses to help "grow their productivity", and also offering start-up incubators.
She said bringing businesses to Christchurch was also a key part of their economic development strategy, and pointed to the recent arrival of flying car company Zephyr as an example of success in this area.
"I don't think you can get any more ambitious than bringing a flying, autonomous, electric taxi business to Christchurch."
RNZ asked for an interview with Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel about Mr Moore's concerns, as well as her perspective on how ChristchurchNZ was doing, but she declined.
"Mr Moore's comments were made as part of a long term plan hearing and the mayor's responsibility is to listen to all submitters before forming an opinion, so it's not appropriate for her to comment at this stage," a spokesperson for Ms Dalziel said.