DCC adds staff positions, significant ratepayer cost

Two permanent full-time project co-ordinators to run the Project China and Export Education Uplift initiatives.

### ODT Online Tue, 21 Oct 2014
Vandervis takes aim over funding request
By Chris Morris
There were heated exchanges between Dunedin city councillors as a debate over an economic development funding request turned into a spat yesterday. The dust-up came as councillors considered a request from the Grow Dunedin Partnership to use $190,000 a year from existing council budgets to pay staff salaries for two projects during the next three years.
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█ Report – EDC – 20/10/2014 (PDF, 126.7 KB)
Economic Development Strategy Projects Budget – Project Co-ordinators’ Funding Request

From the report…

Enterprise Dunedin’s EDS projects budget is $518,000 for the current 2014/2015 financial year and has yet to be ratified for the 2015/16 year and future years. This budget pays for progressing EDS projects and includes payment for the project co-ordinators and project management costs.

RECOMMENDATIONS
That the Committee:

1. Approve the earmarking of $190,000 on an annual basis from the Economic Development Project Budget for the purpose of employing two project co-ordinators.

2. That this funding be included as two line items within the Economic Development Project fund for a period of three years:
- Export Education Uplift Co-ordinator – $95,000
- Project China Co-ordinator – $95,000

BACKGROUND
Dunedin’s Economic Development Strategy (EDS) was adopted in 2013 by its six partners. There are two specific economic goals:

1. 10,000 extra jobs over 10 years (requiring employment growth of approximately 2% per annum.

2. An average of $10,000 extra income for each person (requiring GDP per capita to rise by about 2.5% per annum).

. . .

The Strategy is built around five themes:
1. Business vitality
2. Alliances for innovation
3. A hub of skills and talent
4. Linkages beyond our borders
5. A compelling destination

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Related Posts and Comments:
14.8.14 Mayor Cull’s reflections on Edinburgh #SisterCity #Junkets
21.4.14 Dunedin economic development strategy — low flying Year 1
15.3.13 Dunedin showcase (election year tripe): economic development strategy
19.6.12 DRAFT Dunedin Economic Development Strategy
31.5.12 Public Forum: Dunedin’s DRAFT Economic Development Strategy

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Mayor Cull’s reflections on Edinburgh #SisterCity #Junkets

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Received from Cr Lee Vandervis
Wed, 13 Aug 2014 at 11:36 p.m.

Message: I thought it might be of interest that there has been no response from the Mayor, or from anyone else regarding my criticism of the latest round of Sister City tourism as below.

—— Forwarded Message
From: Lee Vandervis
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 21:10:12 +1200
To: Dave Cull, Sue Bidrose, Sandy Graham, Andrew Noone, Andrew Whiley, Chris Staynes, Doug Hall, Hilary Calvert, John Bezett, Jinty MacTavish, Kate Wilson, Lee Vandervis, Mayor Cull, Mike Lord, Neville Peat, Richard Thomson, David Benson-Pope, Aaron Hawkins
Cc: Tony Avery, Grant McKenzie
Conversation: File – reflections on Edinburgh visit.docx
Subject: Re: File – reflections on Edinburgh visit.docx

Dear Dave,

Thank you sending us your preliminary reflections on visiting Edinburgh, which I know from personal experience to be especially pleasant at this time of year.
Since being elected in 2004 I have read many similar reflections on Sister City visits all of them similarly generic.
I note that your statement “So most of our time in Edinburgh was devoted to meetings with Edinburgh arts and cultural organizations, people or institutions.” is a fair definition of tourism, unless you are heavily into sports which might not necessarily be caught by the words ‘cultural organizations’.
Your claim that you went to “reinvigorate the sister city relationship” is untenable since there never has been any vigour in the relationship, as anyone who has done years on the Edinburgh Sister City Committee will confirm. The previously overused but safer ‘breath new life into the relationship’ would also fail as it is not possible to breathe new life into a corpse.
Ditto Otaru.
I take it that Dunedin will now be hosting some official reciprocal Scottish tourists by return when the Scottish winter bites.

At least Harland pretended to come back with a viable Scottish wind power design.

Kind regards,
Lee

On 6/08/14 4:26 AM, “Quickoffice” wrote:

Hi Colleagues, Attached a preliminary report on the Edinburgh experience. Dave

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Colleagues,
The following is a preliminary report/reflection on our recently completed trip to Edinburgh while it is still fresh. There is considerable detail and learnings yet to be brought together from our various meetings.

This Sister City visit to Edinburgh was timed to coincide with the opening of the NZ in Edinburgh Programme. That included a national kapa haka group being a central part of the tattoo, an exhibition by Commonwealth artists partly curated by Aaron Kriesler of DPAG and many more performances/exhibits. NZ was the country of honor at the umbrella Edinburgh Festival. Our Governor General Sir Jerry Mateparae was a guest of honor with the 2nd Lord of the Admiralty at the Tattoo opening night.
Dunedin received invitations to Edinburgh from the the Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, Creative Scotland and the British Council.
The visit was timed to coincide because one of the objectives of going was to reinvigorate the sister city relationship, potentially through the medium of arts and culture. This was timely as Dunedin is currently developing an Arts and Culture Strategy, our Economic Development Strategy recognises the important potential of the whole creative sector and we are awaiting confirmation of UNESCO City of Literature status. The two cities obviously already have many cultural connections, going back to Dunedin’s founding and naming by Scots.
So most of our time in Edinburgh was devoted to meetings with Edinburgh arts and cultural organizations, people or institutions. They include Creative Scotland (equivalent of Creative NZ), Edinburgh University (2 depts), Councillor convener of arts and future committee, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh City of Literature, British Council, Institute of Scottish Studies, and Centre for the Book Edinburgh Napier University. We also met with the Lord Provost, attended the Tattoo and the opening of Aaron’s exhibition.
We are still processing what we learned, but a number of things made us very positive about the potential opportunity Edinburgh, and our relationship with her, could offer Dundin. First everyone, without exception, has been welcoming and has gone out of their way to engage, spend time with us and provide any information we asked for. Several organizations have express a desire to collaborate with Dunedin. One or two came to meetings with specific proposals! We have even had an approach from the Edinburgh suburb Corstorphine asking about partnering with Corstorphine, Dunedin. The bigger picture is that Edinburgh has essentially reinvented itself as a cultural/festival city. Certainly after World War II Edinburgh’s economy diminished drastically. Edinburgh was the first UNESCO City of Literature. Now festivals of various cultural complexions bring hundreds of millions of pounds into the city. Edinburgh views and defines itself as a creative, literary artistic city. So if nothing else Dunedin can learn an
enormous amount from Edinburgh’s experience across a range of initiatives. In addition there is considerable potential for collaboration and exchange between Dunedin and Edinburgh institutions, to their mutual benefit. There was emphatic interest in Dunedin performers performing in both Edinburgh and Glasgow at major events. Indeed Neville and Cara saw the Chills in Glasgow on Saturday night.
So while we have yet to fully de-brief and weigh up what we learned, it is clear that there is huge potential culturally, economically and academically for Dunedin in refreshing and developing our relationship with Edinburgh specifically and Scotland in general.

Related Post and Comments:
8.4.14 Cinderella Shanghai + 75 ugly sisters

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: thathideousman.blogspot.com – Edinburgh, Scotland

Cinderella Shanghai + 75 ugly sisters

Agencies such as New Zealand Trade and Enterprise already did a ”fantastic” job in China. –John Christie, Otago Chamber

Dunedin was ”in the top 10” of Shanghai’s 75 sister-city relationships as a result of its relationship-building, and that provided a ”platform” to Dunedin businesses. –Cr Chris Staynes

### ODT Online Tue, 8 Apr 2014
Shanghai ‘Dunedin office’ idea debated
By Chris Morris
Dunedin could soon have a permanent presence in Shanghai as part of efforts to ramp up economic links with China, it has been suggested. The concept of a ”Dunedin office”, which already had support from the Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office, would aim to promote Dunedin’s education, tourism and business interests in Shanghai.

Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie, the head of Project Shanghai, hoped funding could be shared between the council and those who would benefit.

The idea was discussed at yesterday’s Dunedin City Council economic development committee meeting, as councillors received a report from Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie on the latest trip by a Dunedin delegation to Shanghai.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: idealshanghai.com

Otago leaders to World Expo in Shanghai

UPDATED

There just has to be a better camera angle, please please find it…

http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/international/3650066/Little-Kiwi-at-worlds-biggest-expo

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### ODT Online Mon, 3 May 2010
Otago to have presence at World Expo
By Chris Morris
A delegation of Otago leaders will later this month attempt to make their mark on 70 million visitors to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. The 22-strong delegation, headed by Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin, Queenstown Lakes Mayor Clive Geddes and Clutha Mayor Juno Hayes, will travel to the Chinese city later this month for several days to take part in the six-month Expo, which opened with a blaze of fireworks on Saturday.

The New Zealand pavilion featured an indoor-outdoor design complete with rooftop garden, a 12m-high steel and rubber pohutukawa tree and a 10m-long waka being carved from a giant kauri tree. It also enjoyed a prime location near China’s pavilion and was expected to attract up to 40,000 visitors each day.

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### idealog.co.nz March-April 2010
Architecture: Pure propaganda
By Tony Laloli, about a month ago
Originally published in Idealog #26, page 122
The World Expo should showcase Kiwi ideas—but Shanghai 2010 is a missed opportunity.

This year, from May 1 to October 31, Shanghai will host the latest world expo. There are expected to be 200 countries exhibiting and around 70 million visitors. The theme ‘Better city, better life’ is the inspiration for the event.

The theme should give us some pause as to what a post-colonial 21st-century New Zealand city could be…

A reliance on indigenous performers and clichéd images of landscape, sails and happy families is a 1950s vision of New Zealand. Those images could be presented via a website and virtual space. Why do they need to be set along an ascending ramp through a dark space in Shanghai?

Read more

Tony Laloli is the pen name of an urbanist, creative technologist and architectural designer working in Auckland.

Post by Elizabeth Kerr