Governance for Economic Development in Auckland

1
Governance for Economic Development in Auckland

• David Wilson
• Director
• Institute of Public Policy

2
Agenda

• Globalisation and Glocalisation
• Economic development
• The City-region as a focus for economic
  development policy and action
• International comparisons
• Montreal
• Toronto
• London
• Auckland
• History
• Current arrangements
• 5 Principles for the improved governance of
  economic development in Auckland

3
Globalisation and Glocalisation

• Globalisation describes a process where now,
  more than ever in history, people are connected.
  They are connected through trade, employment,
  increased communications technologies, cultural
  exchange, sports and migration, to name a few.

4

• In this framework, especially over the last few
  years, globalization has seen the phenomenon of
  glocalism emerge with force. Localities (national
  and sub-national entities in various shapes and
  forms) have begun to interact increasingly with
  "flows" of capital, technologies, goods, people,
  and cultural values generated by global actors.
  The localities have also increasingly begun to
  dialogue with each other, to build networks and
  to set up "horizontal" alliances. Through
  increasingly dense and complex relationships and
  agreements among different local subjects (of
  various types and at various levels public and
  private, national and subnational), a process has
  begun that we could define "horizontal
  globalization." (Bressi, 2003, p5)

5
Economic development what are we trying to
achieve?

• Positively shaping the economy amidst global
  pressures
• Competitive and comparative advantages
• Particularity
• Specialisations
• Sustainability and resilience
• Positive externalities
• Public good outcomes

6

• what we are trying to achieve is a process
  whereby we can shape our economy so that it
  builds on our strengths, takes advantage of our
  particularity (social, cultural, environmental,
  and economic), creates comparative and
  competitive advantages and thus provides
  prosperity and opportunity for our citizens.

7
Three waves of local economic development
Source World Bank (2004) Local Economic
Development A Primer - Developing and
Implementing Local Economic Development
Strategies and Action Plans. A knowledge Product
of Cities of Change, October, Washington, DC.,
cited in Local Governance and the Drivers of
Growth OECD (2005).
8
The City-region as a focus for economic
development policy and action

• New regionalism and other theories
• Unit of competitiveness in global market
• Scale and scope and critical mass
• Policy implementation
• Where ED efforts/implementation can be organised
  better
• Top down and bottom up
• Some things are regional some are local
• implementation is the key

9
RED and LED

• The two are wholly interconnected and
  interdependent
• Regional ED
• focus at a level consistent with the
  City-regions functional economy.
• Gain momentum, build critical mass and support
• Regional positioning and branding,
• Major events
• tackle problems of regional significance that are
  enablers of economic development hard
  infrastructure
• transport, ports, broadband, connectivity
• urban design and amenity
• soft infrastructure that build networks and
  systems of collaboration and critical mass, such
  as
• increasing skills and human capital,
• Innovation systems
• working to mitigate against weaknesses in the
  regional labour market
• Building regional investment propositions
• identifying and supporting clusters and strategic
  industry sectors that are export capable and are
  either fundamental to the regional economy or
  have the potential to be.

10
LED

• Business development one to one work with
  businesses such as
• business retention and expansion programmes,
• training and advice,
• market and competitive intelligence
• Public policy
• Building Capacity and critical mass
• e.g. sector strategies, clusters, science parks,
  incubators, export assistance
• Monitor the local economy and provide timely
  advice on economic trends to both the public and
  private sectors
• endogenous development opportunities such as
• building on the natural, cultural and/or social
  capital inherent in the locality to provide
  economic opportunity
• working with communities to mitigate structural
  problems within, and improve access to, the
  labour market and local economies
• making the necessary local business connections
  to embed exogenous investment in local economies
• supporting innovation and entrepreneurship.
• Town centre regeneration and urban amenity
• Addressing poverty by providing opportunity
• Cross border co-operation and ED best practice
  up-scaling

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• The chief drivers of economic regions are
  well-known larger drivers of change such as
  globalisation, technology development, freer
  trade, public sector reform, increased mobility,
  and the new logistics of trade and exchange.
  Fundamentally, economic-regions offer a scale and
  critical mass of resources at the sub-national
  level, combined with a sufficiently coherent
  geography to address the interaction with these
  wider drivers of change. (Clark 2004)

12
London

• Labour government has favoured a model of
  governance for economic development from below
• Increasing power at local level
• Encouraging partnerships
• Modernisation programme 2 components
• New responsibility for local government
• Creation of regional development agency Greater
  London Authority

13
London

• Bennett et.al. (2004)
• The community strategy has been very widely
  consulted on. More than half of all authorities
  have had major contributions from at least 12
  agents across the private, public and community
  voluntary sectors. It is clear that local
  authorities are indeed operating within a wide
  process of governance that requires complex
  liaison with many other agents, public, private,
  and community bodies.
• Greater London Authority
• The mayor has the responsibility of preparing
  strategies regarding transportation, spatial
  development and economy, as well as setting its
  own budget and budgets for the Authoritys
  functional entities Transport for London, the
  London Development Agency (LDA), the Metropolitan
  Police Authority and London Fire and Emergency
  Planning Authority.

14
London

• GLA main tasks are to influence mainstream
  funding, provide strategic advice and promote
  partnerships.
• The GLA does not have the power to implement The
  London Plan. Implementation power is
  decentralized and is sitting at the local level
  with the boroughs of London and the City of
  London (Greg Clark, 2006).
• The regional agenda has been shown so far to have
  little impact on local government or LSPs Local
  Strategic Partnerships. Suggesting some level of
  dissonance between regional and local
  socio-spatial scales of organisational activity.
  (Bennett et.al., 2004, p.268)

15
Toronto

• The reform led by the Conservative government of
  Ontario was representative of a hands off type
  of approach. Improve efficiency to reduce taxes
  which will in turn attract investment.
• Decentralise services from the province to the
  municipalities with a forced amalgamation of
  municipalities 7 located in the most central
  part of the Greater Toronto Area.
• At the end of the amalgamation process, there are
  no government entities doing local economic
  development at a comparable scale to that of the
  London Boroughs. City of Toronto 2 503 281
  people, one municipality (census, 2006)
• Attempt at regional governance largely failed
• Growing poverty in some neighbourhoods.

16
Montreal

• 1996 to 2003 reforms forced amalgamation of 27
  municipalities located in the most central part
  of Montreal creation of 27 boroughs under the
  new city
• 2001 Implementation of the Montreal Metropolitan
  Community.
• The MMC was created to address Metropolitan
  regional issues and was given a strategic
  planning role including Economic Development.
• 2003 start of the de-amalgamation process.

17
Montreal

• Views on the MMC
• Fourot (2006) affirms that observers of municipal
  governance believe that the MMC does not greatly
  influence political/administrative dynamics of
  the city. This may be explained as the
  organisation has limited resources (Boudreau et.
  Al. 2004) and the current complex governance
  structure in Montreal complicates any
  coordination of activities with other actors.
• Some consider the MMC as a good first step
  towards metropolitan governance (OECD, 2004).
  Collin (2002) believes that the Metropolitan
  Community of Montreal has not yet found its
  effective, influential form and is still
  experimenting. The main challenge of the MMC is
  developing effective link with the institutional
  structure to implement their mandate (OECD, 2004)
  and strengthening its legitimacy with regard to
  the metropolitan population.

18
Montreal

• Traditionally, the Quebec provincial government
  has recognised local/community-based initiatives
  as an important tool for economic development
• Community Economic Development Corporations still
  present after the reforms and de-amalgamation
  through the boroughs and other local agencies
  funded by provincial government.
• No apparent link between local agencies and
  Montreal Metropolitan Community (Morin and
  Hanley, 2004)

19

• a key institutional axiom is that solutions have
  to be context-specific and sensitive to local
  path-dependencies. (Amin, 1999)

20
Auckland Development Patterns

• Tamaki makau rau place of a thousand lovers
• Place of attraction and opportunity
• Common themes/challenges
• Infrastructure
• lack of Funding
• Ad hoc development
• Population growth
• Fragmented development
• Potted histories
• Problem of political boundaries

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Auckland ED efforts today

• Beginnings of structures that represent regional
  ED function AREDA, AREDF, Auckland Plus, GUEDO
• Disconnection between levels of activity
• horizontal and vertical
• Institutional thin-ness
• discreet activities and agencies
• Top down policy drivers
• Little reflexivity
• Almost non existent flexibility
• Luke warm cross sector engagement
• Lack of regional decision-taking ability and
  influence
• Lack of integration of programmes
• Cooperation sometimes, collaboration less,
  coordination poor
• lack of trust early days??

22
5 Principles for the improved governance of
economic development in Auckland

• Glocalism
• Build local implementation capacity
• Cooperation and collaboration
• organise
• Devolution and Subsidiarity
• empower
• Functionality and Flexibility
• Support economic geography/rationale
• Fit-for-purpose governance arrangements
• Integration
• One plan Provide a focussed easy to follow
  action plan for the City-region regional
  priorities

23
Some suggestions

• More empowered arms length REDA with
• cross sector governance
• An organising for RED mandate
• Horizontal and vertical reach in partnership and
  influence
• A long term funding base
• Build local delivery and governance capacity
• As above but for LED
• especially in business development programmes but
  also
• Framing investment opportunities
• Developing local economies
• Project management
• Developing new institutional arrangements for the
  delivery of ED projects
• An EDA for Auckland City