Emerging industries like titanium and aquaculture are forcing a review of the Bay's economic development strategy – Bay of Connections.

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'As with any piece of work, it will need to continue to evolve to meet the changing environment,” says Bay of Connections acting chief executive officer Miles McConway.

'Our world has changed significantly in the past few years, so it's vital that our regional economic strategy changes and evolves with it.”

He told a recent Bay of Plenty Regional Council strategy, planning and policy committee meeting that the strategy's 13 key sectors need to be further developed and strengthened if the region is to prosper.

Work is underway on these sectors: energy, forestry, transport and logistics, aquaculture, marine, and information and communications technology.

The review is expected to be completed by November.

'It (the review) will also have a greater degree of economic analysis,” says Miles.

'It will have measurable targets, based around FTEs (full time equivalents) and GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

'Having more quantitative analysis will help target future funding and resource allocation to those sectors where there is a high degree of confidence in significant and positive results as a result of that investment.”

The Bay of Connections Governance Group will update the strategy every three years to ensure it remained relevant to the regional and national economies.

The first stage updates the economic and industry profile of the Bay of Plenty.

The updated version will retain a sector-based approach and will continue to be aligned with nationally competitive sectors.

'The key measure of the strategy's success will be an increase in employment over and above what would be expected without intervention,” says Miles.

'A secondary set of measures will be around GDP, which will reflect increases in productivity or increased value added.

'These measures will enable the on-going impact of Bay of Connections to be monitored.”

Stage two, begun this month, involves developing the strategy and action plan documents, ready for completion and launch in November or December this year.

The update will cost about $130,000, shared by NZ Trade and Enterprise paying about 70 percent, and Priority One, Toi-EDA, Destination Rotorua Economic Development and the Regional Council sharing the rest of the costs.

A regional forum is scheduled for early next month.

'This is a chance for the Bay of Connections Governance Group to share the draft strategy and action plan with interested partners from industry, central and local government, and science and education providers.”