New Zealand and Australian governments are funding a new initiative to support indigenous businesses by providing e-commerce training and business development. 

According to Associate Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta, the new initiative will be targeted toward Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori communities, helping up to 82 indigenous businesspeople. 

“Today’s announcement is the next step in our Indigenous Collaboration Arrangement (ICA) with Australia, demonstrating tangible outcomes for our indigenous business communities,” Associate Minister Mahuta said. 

“Collaborations like this are key to cultivating a thriving Māori business sector that keeps up with digitisation and globalisation.” 

New Zealand-based social enterprise company Te Whare Hukahuka, Australia’s Waalitj Indigenous Business and Employment Hub and the Oceania Indigenous House of eCommerce Ltd will be providing the e-commerce learning to indigenous businesses through a 12-week course. 

The course is expected to help equip indigenous businesses to excel in the online world and grow their customer databases.  

“This initiative aligns with Te Puni Kokiri’s Māori Economic Resilience Strategy by helping Māori businesses to recover from COVID-19 and find ways to thrive in new digital environments,” Associate Minister Mahuta said. 

By working with each other’s counterparts in both countries, the governments are able to facilitate access to high-quality training that will help Māori and Australian Indigenous businesses learn from one another.

We hope that this will increase opportunities for long-term wealth as we continue to work from the ICA,” Associate Minister Mahuta said. 

“We are jointly committed with Australia to deepen our relationship on indigenous issues and we look forward to seeing where this journey takes us next.”

The funding of the initiative is said to be a reflection of a joint commitment between Australia and New Zealand to grow the role of Indigenous businesses in the trans-Tasman Single Economic Market (SEM).

The work sits alongside the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum’s Indigenous Business Sector Group and aligns with the Australia-New Zealand ICA, signed in February 2020. 

Source: Inside Government NZ

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

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