Source: New Zealand Government
Applications have opened for a $30 million fund for projects that will enhance the resilience of New Zealand’s coastal shipping connections and help boost economic growth, Associate Transport Minister James Meager has announced.
The Coastal Shipping Resilience Fund was established through the Government Policy Statement on land transport. Funding will be allocated through a contestable process, with the criteria’s scope confirmed today.
“The coastal shipping sector is vulnerable to natural hazard risks. Disruption to the sector could worsen New Zealand’s supply chain and economic performance,” Mr Meager says.
“This long-term investment is crucial to ensuring we as a nation can get our goods to market, which is vital to growing the economy. Economic growth means more jobs, higher incomes and better public services for all Kiwis.”
The fund will be used to invest in a small number of landmark projects, to support assets and facilities with a long lifespan well beyond the three-year funding period.
This could include strengthening wharves and jetties, improving access routes to and from ports, or upgrading freight handling equipment.
Preference will be given to applications which include co-investment.
Mr Meager says the fund will also consider requests from sectors that support the resilience of the wider coastal shipping sector through, for example, energy and fuel, navigation aids, or the training of seafarers.
“Coastal shipping plays an important role in New Zealand’s freight network. It provides a safe and low emitting way of transporting large, heavy cargo such as shipping containers – along with cement and aggregate used in building new infrastructure.
“It is also a lifeline when natural disaster strikes, as demonstrated following Cyclone Gabrielle when coastal shipping provided critical services to Tairāwhiti. The fund will ensure those benefits can continue.
“The fund will enhance the coastal shipping sector’s ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from disruptive events that would otherwise undermine our coastal freight connections.”
