Centre’s opening delayed

Press, 12 July 1983, Page 8

Centre’s opening delayed

Canterbury’s new Cooperative Development Resource Centre will open a month later than planned to allow more time to get a marketing and sales service started Officials from the Wellington head offices of the Labour Department and Internal Affairs Department will meet the centre’s management committee and Canterbury United Council staff to discuss possible help for the service to self-help employment plans. Mr Graeme Carroll, the centre’s interim co-ordina-

tor, said that marketing and sales advice to job ventures was the centre’s key element. Funding which would provide a marketing and sales person for three years was being sought. “It takes that long to get a proper service established,” he said. A funding application for the service was made in early March. Because of the delay, the centre will now open on August 31, instead of at the end of July. Businesses and service clubs are also being

asked for assistance. Many people trying to start new ventures “usually have very little in the way of money and other material resources,” said Mr Carroll. They needed help in drawing up marketing and business management plans, and needed to be directed into product and service areas where demands were not being met. A recent survey of more than 25 self-help employment groups and schemes in Canterbury showed that the top priority was help with management planning, and

marketing and sales advice. About 800 persons were directly involved in those ventures, said Mr Carroll, “and it is estimated that there are about 1000 people indirectly getting support from them.”

New Zealand’s job creation rate was recently about 3 per cent, compared with 8 per cent for Australia and 14 for the United States.

“There is an urgent need for ventures that widen and encourage opportunities for choice, experimentation and innovation.”.!