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AUCKLAND'S economy must he allowed to grow for the rest of New Zealand to thrive.
That's the controversial message from a New Zealand Chambers of Commerce policy paper. "If Auckland's roads are bunged up, then the whole New Zealand economy loses," Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce chief executive Phil Lewin said when the document was released in Auckland.
"As a country, we will not get anywhere near our target of 4 per cent annual growth."
The chambers, which include regional offices from across New Zealand, estimate that Auckland's economic output must increase by nearly 80 percent in the next decade if the national economy is to bit the Government's 4 per cent a year growth goal.
That means -removing impediments to Auckland's growth, in the past 15 to 20 years, Auckland had expanded faster than the rest of New Zealand and now generates one-third of New Zealand's gross domestic product.
That would continue as Auckland's population headed toward 1.65 million by 2021.
It had the potential to be a leading city and export business centre in Australia and New Zealand.
It would continue to attract a disproportionate number of people to live and work there, and the Chambers of Commerce are warning New Zealanders against fighting the trend.
"The best response to this increased urbanisation - and the potential pressure on the other main centres and provincial New Zealand is not to try to resist growth in Auckland.
"[We should] encourage Auckland to improve its growth performance in ways that contribute to better living standards for all New Zealanders," the Chambers of Commerce statement said.
Mr Lewin accepted that many New Zealanders from outside Auckland would remain unconvinced about the city's need for more taxpayer money and private investment to improve its stretched infrastructure.
However, they should riot see it as a threat, he said. "We are not talking about this happening at the expense of the rest of the country.
"We have to walk and chew gum at the same time... and that requires a fundamentally different national development formula to the one we have been using until now," Mr Lewin said.