Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

Tauranga has been given some mean labels, such as ‘$10 Tauranga' and ‘a place for newly-weds and nearly-deads' – fortunately, many other New Zealand towns have far worse labels than ours.

Council plays a major role in enabling the economy to grow. We zone land, provide critical lead-infrastructure – for example, transport, water, waste and flood protection – and approve consents for new developments.

But the city's growing population hasn't changed the stereotypes about our low wage economy. Tauranga's wealth statistics have barely improved during recent Census surveys.

The city's growing population has provided some business opportunities, but it's also increased the cost of living. For most residents, it would feel like a zero-sum game.

Tauranga's goal is to get better paying jobs. We need to focus on the best way to achieve that goal.

This means recognising that tourism can fill our cafes and enhance our city's identity, but putting all of our economic development eggs in the tourism basket will not achieve our ultimate goal.

Only developing countries consider tourism as their main way to get foreign money into the local economy.

Our aging population provides many economic opportunities. For instance, you can associate our growing retirement population with the growth of Tauranga's angel investor network – BOP Enterprise Angels. The opportunity awaits to connect our talented school-leavers and entrepreneurs with NZ's strongest venture capitalist network.

Science is unlocking the oceans economic potential. The University of Waikato's marine field station at Sulphur Point is establishing Tauranga as NZ's home of marine research.

Cities in Korea and China are keen to help us commercialise our marine potential; more than we could alone – google ‘blue biotech' for more information.

NZ's businesses are going digital to survive. The venturecentre.co.nz and RHUBARBgroupbop.net are local networks for little and big businesses to share knowledge and unleash business potential from investing in ICT.

To sum up, local economies grow when money from outside the region gets poured into them. To get better paying jobs in Tauranga, we need to get the most external money coming into our economy as we can.

This means I'd rather support innovation centres than invest in loss-leaders such as sports stadiums, convention centres, or other tourist attractions.

The Tertiary Education Partnership – between the University of Waikato and local polytechnics – will be the key to ensuring as many people as possible are trained to fill these skills gaps to get better-paying jobs for locals.

Feel free to email me your thoughts (matt.cowley@tauranga.govt.nz), call/text me on 027 6989 548, and follow me at www.facebook.com/a.younger.voice.