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New Milton Rotary Club member, Suzanne Jenkins, shared with us her journey from starting as a Post Office assistant, through to now leading the development of Dunedin's Economic Development Strategy. Having been encouraged by a mentor in the early days, Suzanne set up a finance team in Dunedin (she is a self-proclaimed numbers nut) for the Post Office, a state owned enterprise. She later worked for the University of Otago, Wickliffe Press and an accountant. Suzanne moved to Tourism Dunedin and Finance Manager in 1985. In 2014 Tourism Dunedin amalgamated back in to the Dunedin City Council. Her job now involves Suzanne being very much involved with the strategic direction of the city. she is also responsible for overseeing research and data. She works with an economist on this and is currently busy monitoring the recovery since covid-19 lockdown. Challenges she sees for Dunedin are housing - freeing upland for more housing and the challenge of providing housing during the hospital rebuild, South Dunedin - a challenge in the future, tourism - cruise ships are not coming as we would have been heading into the higher season. Dunedin was tracking really well prior to covid - people have had to think better about what they are going to do and be agile enough to respond to what happens. Thank you to Suzanne for sharing her journey and knowledge with us. BACKGROUND
Dunedin’s Economic Development Strategy (EDS) was adopted in 2013 by its six partners. There are two specific economic goals: 1. 10,000 extra jobs over 10 years (requiring employment growth of approximately 2% per annum. 2. An average of $10,000 extra income for each person (requiring GDP per capita to rise by about 2.5% per annum). The Strategy is built around five themes:
1. Business vitality
2. Alliances for innovation
3. A hub of skills and talent
4. Linkages beyond our borders
5. A compelling destination |
Last Tuesday I joined Amyn's family and a group students to welcome back Tokomairiro High School and Rotary Youth Exchange student Amyn Amende.
