News & Events | Priority One Western Bay of Plenty

Talent in our labour market

The Western Bay economy continues to expand at a healthy rate; businesses remain confident about how they are trading and their future prospects. While we’re still growing well, we need to be...

Expanded Groundswell festival brings two weeks of innovation, fresh ideas and international speakers

Groundswell festival of innovation is back again this year, showcasing the diverse range of innovative and entrepreneurial activity taking place in the Bay and providing a platform for the...

Focus on inclusiveness and prosperity across the community

Far from being a new concept, wellbeing is at the heart of the outcomes that communities value most, rather than just measuring GDP or employment. Economic forecaster, Infometrics, has...

Value of research and tertiary capability highlighted by two major initiatives

Lifting the Western Bay sub-region’s ability to add value to jobs, products and business by increasing research and development capacity aligned with our distinctive economic strengths is a key...

We all need to step up to resolve our transport woes

Tauranga is a great city and a hugely popular place. While we have a lot to be positive about and a bright future ahead, transport congestion is cause for real concern. We face a dire...

Western Bay’s innovative tertiary education model leads the way

February saw the opening of the University of Waikato’s Tauranga campus. This is a great milestone and development for our city and one that will improve our competitive advantages as a city...

Competitive advantages underpin economic success, but there’s still work to do

The popularity of Tauranga/Western Bay has been built on several years of economic growth, and it’s a pretty compelling story. Our headline statistics are impressive, with 4.1% GDP growth...

Priority One sends best wishes for the festive season

The team at Priority One would like to take this opportunity to thank our members for their support during 2018. It has been another a great year for the local economy, with the region topping...

Education system needs to prepare students for innovation era

A sense of urgency is required to rethink how we prepare our young people to thrive in an era of innovation and key to this is providing more time for free learning, according to an internationally...

How do you want our city to develop over the next 30 years?

Earlier this month SmartGrowth released the Future Development Strategy for consultation. SmartGrowth is a partnership of the three local councils and Tangata Whenua – it sets the future...

Groundswell highlights Bay’s culture of innovation and collaboration

Late August saw the second Groundswell Festival of Innovation take place at a range of venues across Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty. Please click here to read the rest of the September...

Opportunities to partner with world class companies doing business from the Bay.

There's little doubt that the economy in Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty is in great shape. According to the latest data from economic research company, Infometrics, we have grown...

Bay’s innovation in the spotlight through Groundswell festival

August sees Tauranga and the Western Bay host the Groundswell Festival of Innovation. We ran this festival for the first time last year and we’re very pleased to be able to put it on...

Young Innovator Awards help develop smart skills for our future workforce

June saw the Western Bay of Plenty's budding young innovators finalising their 'innovations' for the 2018 Young Innovator Awards competition. YiA is a great initiative for local...

Spotlight shines on Tauranga for Techweek'18 innovation events

Last week saw the annual Techweek festival being held across New Zealand, and it was really pleasing to have a number of excellent events taking place in this region. The most prominent...

Strong, bold leadership from local authorities required to support economic growth

We were kept busy during April preparing submissions to local authority long term plans. This is when the three councils covering the Western Bay sub-region prepare their budgets for the next...

Tauranga tops the country on all key measures of economic growth

Last month I wrote enthusiastically about the Bay's robust growth, reflected in a range of key indicators. Since then economic analysts, Infometrics, have released their growth statistics...

Bay's robust economy reflected in range of key indicators

Recently I've read about what 2018 will herald for the business community and the economy in Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty. I've been surprised at some relatively negative...