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Remembering, revitalising and collaborating

Taken from the Chief Executive's report.

Our work over the past year is marked by three themes - remembering, revitalising and collaborating to deliver excellent outcomes for New Zealand.

An obvious area where these themes have played out has been the continued focus on the rebuild of Christchurch. I am proud of the way the Ministry has worked with its key partners in Christchurch, including the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) and other central government agencies, our funded agencies, the Christchurch City Council, and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, to ensure that culture and heritage plays a role right at the heart of the rebuild.  I am confident we will rise to the challenge of translating the vision into a meaningful and successful reality for the people of Christchurch and New Zealand.

Remembering has been the driving force for another key project this year for the Ministry: leading planning for New Zealand’s commemoration of the First World War Centenary (WW100). The major announcement of Memorial Park, a legacy project to mark the Centenary, reflects a lot of hard work by Ministry staff and many others. A lot of hard and quick work is yet to come. Memorial Park, along with the wider WW100 programme will help honour the service and sacrifice of those who fought. It will acknowledge the impact of the war on those who remained at home and encourage families and communities to pass on their memories. It will strengthen New Zealand’s connections with countries which share First World War experiences with us.

Strengthened connections between New Zealand and the world have been at the heart of two other key projects: the Rugby World Cup and the associated REAL NZ Festival, and New Zealand’s Guest of Honour position at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair. The 14 Ministry-funded projects in support of the REAL New Zealand Festival were highly successful as audience numbers met or exceeded expectations. It was great to see New Zealand’s star performers give of their best on and off the rugby field. New Zealand’s role as Guest Country of Honour at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair is a very exciting project for the Ministry and for New Zealand. The world’s largest book fair and most prestigious annual publishing event allows New Zealanders a fantastic opportunity to sell our books into international markets, but also to showcase New Zealand’s literature and culture, to promote trade and tourism and to strengthen our political ties with Europe.

Back at home, the end is nigh for analogue television as we revitalise ourselves into a digital TV watching nation. A hardworking project team has been leading the ‘Going Digital’ project. This project is on-track to support New Zealanders to fully transition their television watching into the digital age. The first two regions, Hawke’s Bay and the West Coast, switch over on 30 September this year.

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