ENC Growth Strategy

1. ENC Growth Strategy Agriculture and Broadband August 2013

2. Agriculture • CDC strategy shows the rural economy is vital to Greater Christchurch’s recovery • ENC must be involved in promotion of the rural economy of North Canterbury • Previously assisted Hurunui Water Project • Project to support technology transfer • Review has identified areas we can participate by facilitating and complementing rather than leading

3. Farming Environment • Growth is beneficial • Government funding available • Water quality regulations demand better practice • New irrigation – cost and opportunity • New technology and IT skills part of future tool kit • Many agencies involved/crowded space • The psychology of farmers – individuals and self sufficient, who do they trust?

4. ENC Focus • Link NC farmers to SFF and PGP projects of relevance • Increase farmer access to independent one-to-one advice • Enhance the connections between local government policy, infrastructure needs and socio-economic impacts • Facilitate improved dryland dairy farming in the Hurunui

5. ENC Focus • Link with existing networks and players rather than duplicate • Ensure NC farmers are equipped to meet compliance requirements of water quality regulations • Facilitate NC farmer access to training on IT based farm management systems • Support increased understanding of new land uses resulting from irrigation

6. ENC RURAL • Establish ENC presence • Must be relevant and credible • Use the strengths from other sectors • Leone Evans is the project leader • leone@enterprisenc.co.nz

7. Broadband • In town and country ….. • High speed broadband is essential to maintain current competitive position • It is NOT a competitive advantage • Need it to be in the game • Service requirements in all sectors becoming more complex; requiring connectivity everywhere, all the time, with big data capacity and high speed

8. Rural Examples • Product traceability/bar-coding • Fonterra – milk quality management • ECAN water data recording and reporting • Must be reliable and constant • Extending fibre as far as possible increases capacity (speed) and reliability (always on)

9. Government Roll Out • Limited fibre roll out in rural North Canterbury • Some towns, schools and hospitals • Increased wireless coverage and capacity • Only paying for the infrastructure – Chorus, Enable, Vodafone • Who will provide the service? – Telecom, ISPs, Vodafone - not funded by government • What demand at what price will determine the service provided rurally? • Not promising so far!

10. Key Messages • Don’t wait for fibre to arrive – be proactive in seeking it • Create communities of interest in localities that will benefit from BB – those who see the potential • Create partnerships to create and deliver a BB service to rural sector • Rural economic development will require business/technical partnerships

11. ENC Activities • Work with communities and groups to increase capacity and speed beyond the RBB limits • Work with communities and groups to encourage service providers to provide a service in rural areas with small demand • Facilitate the community engagement, that is the only way NC will have a BB service comparable to the cities

12. Examples • Oxford – there have been a number of community discussions • What is needed now is a qualified solution involving critical players – Oxford school, a fibre layer, a service provider • Identifying “Home Based” professional groups in localities – in Waimakariri and Hurunui

13. Fibre to the Farm • We are starting with a vision to see fibre delivering broadband services to every location in NC 10 years from now • It will require strong community engagement and commitment with technical and service delivery inputs – and the community will have to pay • Tom McBrearty – tom@enterprisenc.co.nz

14. Summary • Actively identify and support the critical components in growing NC rural economic wealth • “ENC RURAL” • One of these is providing comparable BB service to rural NC • “FIBRE TO THE FARM”