Investing in Tairāwhiti Gisborne’s future
Published: 16 December, 2022 · Updated: 14 March, 2023
Minister of Economic and Regional Development Stuart Nash was in Tairāwhiti Gisborne where he announced two successful recipients from the Government’s $200 million Regional Strategic Partnership Fund at an event held at the Mātai Medical Research Institute.
The two successful Regional Strategic Partnership Fund recipients are the Mātai Medical Research Institute (Mātai) which will receive a $1.5 million grant and a $1.5 million loan, and Prime SPV which will receive a $4.5 million loan towards its Kiwi Lumber sawmill.
For Mātai, the funding builds on the previous $6 million Provincial Growth Fund grant that it used to establish a world-leading health research facility in Tairāwhiti.
Since opening in 2020, Mātai’s strong performance has attracted significant interest from New Zealand’s wider research community. This has resulted in numerous additional research projects and programmes collaborating with Mātai.
The Government’s investment in Mātai through the Regional Strategic Partnership Fund will help to co-fund the expansion of Mātai Medical Research Institute.
Down the road at Matawhero, Prime SPV’s $4.5 million loan from the Regional Strategic Partnership Fund will be used to further upgrade the Kiwi Lumber Sawmill with additional assets, which will increase efficiencies throughout the sawmill while creating at least an additional 15 jobs.
The loan builds on the previous $12.1 million Provincial Growth Fund loan that Prime SPV received and used to undertake a significant capital works upgrade of the sawmill.
Throughout the country we are continuing to see the positive impacts of Kānoa – RDU’s investments and it is no different in Tairāwhiti.