Case Study 3 - The second Ministerial Business Roundtable
Our objective
To improve economic outcomes for Ethnic Communities and support ethnic businesses in unlocking their potential to contribute to New Zealand’s economic performance.
To explore and identify how to make ethnic businesses faster-growing and more successful and to identify the impediments to success.
What we did
We organised the second Ministerial Roundtable in March 2024. This initiative builds on the success of the first Ministerial Roundtable with ethnic business leaders and organisations in April 2023 and the first EthnicBiz Forum in May 2023.
This meeting, hosted by Chief Executive Mervin Singham, was an opportunity for business leaders and representatives to connect with the Hon Melissa Lee, the Minister for Ethnic Communities and the Minister of Economic Development.
What was the result
About 20 leaders attended, representing businesses working across trade and investment, the construction industry and other sectors.
Topics included support for women-led businesses, the importance of forming relationships with mainstream businesses and associations, support for employers and retail safety. A common theme was making sure support for businesses was culturally and linguistically appropriate. The Ministry received positive feedback from attendees.
What this means for all New Zealanders, including our Ethnic Communities
By supporting ethnic business, they can better contribute to the economy for the benefit of New Zealand’s economy. We will continue prioritising economic development initiatives, including the Business Symposium (Ethnic Xchange) in late 2024.
Photo from the discussions during the second Ministerial Business Roundtable.
Addressing barriers to migrant employment
In 2023/24, the ECDF provided $10,000 to the Migrant Careers Support Trust based in Auckland to fund jobseeker ‘boot camps’. These are intensive one to two-day workshops for about 30 people seeking employment.
The camps covered CV writing, interview preparation and an induction into business in New Zealand. Funding also covered two workshops on governance skills for people who want to contribute their skills and experience at that level.
The ECDF funding of the Trust’s work directly contributes to addressing barriers to employment for Ethnic Communities.
Highlighting inspiring stories of successful Kiwi-ethnic professionals
In collaboration with the New Zealand Centre for Digital Connections with India, the Ministry organised the ‘Inspiring Stories – from COBOL to Cloud and CleanTech’ event as part of the New Zealand TechWeek 2024.
The event aimed to celebrate the contributions and potential of Ethnic Communities, especially women, in New Zealand’s technology and business sectors.
The event featured a line up of six speakers in two engaging panel discussions. The audience included professionals, students and government representatives.
This initiative highlighted the importance of diversity and inclusion in the technology industry. It also promoted equitable opportunities, empowering Ethnic Communities to contribute meaningfully to New Zealand’s economic growth.
Ethnic Communities Graduate Programme
The Ethnic Communities Graduate Programme provides skilled graduates from Ethnic Communities with a meaningful first employment opportunity in the public sector.
The programme was originally designed to address the low representation of ethnically diverse employees and the barriers they face accessing employment in the public sector.
However, the percentage of ethnic graduates in the public service has improved over the last five years to be more representative of New Zealand’s population.
During the 2023/24 financial year, the second intake of graduates completed the programme and the third intake began.
Intake two, which ran from February 2022 to August 2023, consisted of 14 graduates across 10 public sector agencies.
From right to left: the Ministry’s Programme Lead with intake three graduates, 2024
The third intake consists of 16 graduates across six public sector agencies. These agencies include Inland Revenue, the Ministry of Transport, the New Zealand Customs Service, the New Zealand Intelligence Community, the New Zealand Police and the Public Service Commission.
Graduates are working in a variety of fields, such as policy, intelligence, data and analytics, people and capability, and communications.
Intake three began in August 2023 and will finish by February 2025.
Next: Priority 4. Connecting and empowering Ethnic Community groups