Wairarapa Economic Development Strategy

About WEDS

Wairarapa is our region, our people and our future.

Change is taking place and we want to be in control of that change, and we want to be sure that those who find it difficult to keep up are not forgotten.

Wairarapa Economic Development Strategy [WEDS] was developed to maintain momentum in the region’s economy and plan for a future that allows for growth.

Carterton, Masterton, and South Wairarapa’s Mayors sit on the  WEDS Governance Group.

The Group aims to establish, extend, improve and upscale small businesses and the primary sector in the key focus areas, including added-value food and beverage, visitor and tourism and the knowledge economy.

Each Mayor is responsible for one of those three key sectors in this regionwide approach.

Greater Wellington Regional Council chair, Chris Laidlaw, along with business and iwi leaders also help make up the Governance Group.

WEDS has come a long way since its launch in November 2018.

In 2019, WEDS supported a number of significant applications to the Provincial Growth Fund which will benefit our region in different ways.

For more information, visit:

• Facebook: We are Wairarapa
• WEDS website: growwairarapa.nz

The WEDS Refresh is Underway

Our region is in need of a refreshed strategy, an agreed set of priorities, and an action plan for our ever-changing future.

Stakeholder and community engagement is planned to inform the new action plan for 2022 and beyond.

What’s Happening?

The Wairarapa needs a refreshed collaborative regional economic development strategy to guide long-term direction with a focused action plan over the next three, five and ten years.
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The WEDS Forum is independently chaired by Adrienne Young-Cooper with representatives from all three Wairarapa district councils, iwi, GWRC and industry leaders. The Forum is committed to working together to help set direction, prioritise, fund, and help enable focused economic initiatives to complement the wider Wellington region.

WellingtonNZ has recently appointed two Wairarapa-based staff, Jacinda Johnston (Programme Manager) and Natasha Kyd (Executive Assistant/Project Coordinator) to drive the new strategy and implement the action plan.

HenleyHutchings has been commissioned by Masterton District Council, on behalf of the three local district councils and WellingtonNZ, to undertake a review of the 2018 strategy and work with the community to prepare a new forward-thinking strategy and action plan. This work is already underway. If you would like more information, contact details are below.

The refresh, expected to be completed in March 2022, will inform the Wellington Regional Economic Development Plan.