Jane Nees BOP Regional Councillor www.janenees.co.nz

As a region, the Bay of Plenty is doing many things right and this is flowing through into our economic performance.

Economic growth is important for us all as it provides more jobs, more money, and an opportunity for an improved lifestyle. Our progress is shown by the Regional Rankings 2011 report recently released by BERL, which compares the relative economic performance of districts, cities and regions across New Zealand during the past year, and during the previous five years.

As a region, the Bay of Plenty is in second place behind Auckland, having climbed from 7th place in 2010. It had the highest employment and GDP growth for 2011 and the fastest growing GDP over the medium term.

The Western Bay of Plenty district is ranked 6th overall, closely followed by Tauranga City which is ranked 8th out of 66 local authorities. The Western Bay of Plenty did well in the medium term rankings for population, employment and GDP, where it ranks in the top 10 for each. It also ranked second for employment growth during the last five years. Tauranga is the only city in the top 10 - while population growth has eased, the city's economy is doing well ranking third in both employment and GDP growth, and 6th in business units growth.

The other good news is that most parts of the region are strongly improving. Over the past year Opotiki (3rd), Whakatāne (4th), Tauranga City (5th) and Rotorua (7th) all placed in the top 10 of local authorities making the biggest improvements in ranking. In the past we have had a two speed economy in the Bay of Plenty, with the east lagging well behind the west – so it is very positive that all the indicators are moving in the right direction given the challenging times we have all been facing over the past few years.

If you have any views on this or any other issue, please email me [email protected] or phone 07 579 5150. Or you can check out my website: www.janenees.co.nz