"I am pleased to announce that Industry New Zealand has allocated $82,500 to the Wairarapa region for the second round of the Regional Partnership Programme," said the Minister for Regional Development Jim Anderton.

"Wairarapa has a strong regional partnership and there will be a significant return to local people through the Regional Partnerships Programme. The lead agency in the region is the Masterton Business Enterprise Centre.

"The ideas that each plan needs have to come from local people committed to making their regional economy work. In the Wairarapa many people have been involved and local groups, councils and iwi have been part of the process," said Jim Anderton.

Other regions to receive funding from Industry New Zealand announced today are Canterbury $200,000, Southland, the Eastern Bay of Plenty and Hawkes Bay $100,000 each. Rotorua will receive funding of $133,000 for stages one and two, while Manawatu will receive $135,000. The Wellington region is to receive $70,500.

The partnership grants can be up to $100,000 for the regional plans and up to $100,000 for making sure the plans can be implemented (capacity building). Funding of up to $2 million per region is available to contribute to major regional initiatives that come out of the strategies developed in the first two stages.

Fourteen regions have secured grants in the previous three rounds amounting to $1,300,000. Wairarapa received $80,000 in stage one. This round sees the total committed increase to $2,220,500 for 19 regional partnerships.

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