Māori organisations and iwi need to take more risks with their investments, economic advisors say.
The Māori economy is estimated to be worth $42 billion, and climbing.
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In the past 20 years, Māori economic specialist Guy Royal has seen a big rise in Māori groups wanting to do commercial development.
Guy Royal, Managing Director – Tuia Group. Photo: Tuia Group
But the director of the advisory firm Tuia Group said iwi were not taking enough risks.
"There's a tension around prudently managing the assets and ensuring they are here, mō ngā whakatupuranga kei te heke mai, for generations coming," Mr Royal said.
"But also you've got to grow. If you're not growing, you're stagnant and ultimately you will die away."
Mr Royal spoke at an iwi investment conference in Wellington yesterday, run by Harbour Asset Management.
Māori traditionally invest in farming, fishing and forestry.
Managing director Andrew Bascand said iwi should not put all their eggs into one basket.
"The key risks we need to think about is diversifying our investments and that might be in traditional areas like property and land but increasingly it needs to be focused on companies and businesses in New Zealand, and actually overseas."
Harbour Asset Management managing director, Andrew Bascand. Photo: YouTube/World Finance
The Crown has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into new iwi organisations in recent years, through treaty settlements.
Ross Fowler is the chief executive of fi360 Pacific, which offers asset management training.
"We have a whole range of boards that are much more immature and probably one of the biggest issues is raising the capacity of those boards so that people are on an equal footing," he said.
"We don't have individuals driving the decision-making process without others coming along."
Just over a week ago Māori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell announced an extra $1.6 million to support Māori businesses wanting to grow internationally.
He said there's some trepidation about taking risks, but it was time to think about the future.
"Our people have found they've got money in the bank now and they've got to make some wise decisions."
"We've seen some mistakes made in the past but I think people are learning from that that we've got to make some wise decisions, get the right people on the boards, and have a lot more accountability for the money."
Mr Flavell said it was important to utilise the cultural capital that Māori bring to the table.