Client:  Te Puni Kokiri

Date: August 2006

Author(s): Kel Sanderson; Jason Leung-Wai

This report provides economic based arguments for providing Business Facilitation Services assistance in the non-metro areas of New Zealand.  The economic argument is based on three key theories, which are: core drivers, settlement hierarchy; and economies of scale.

We use case studies of core driver businesses in Northland to support the theoretical analysis.  We find that there is an economic case for supporting assistance to non-metro areas.  Further, there is an opportunity to explore the possibility of targeting assistance in the non-metro regions towards the core-driver industries.  

BERL #4468