Acceleration Program To Boost New Zealand’s Public Sector
Budding entrepreneurs, innovators, as well as public sector agencies in New Zealand received a boost through a three-month business acceleration program that aimed at creating digital solutions. The program, regarded to as Lightning Lab GovTech was developed as a result of collaboration between the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency, Wellington City Council, and Greater Wellington Regional Council as well as the Victoria Business School at Victoria University of Wellington.
This new program is being rolled out in August 2018 and the applicants are to engage in the designing, testing, and developing new technologies that are to improve both the local and central governments in the country and also be made available overseas in the long-run. Professor Stephen Cummings, the entrepreneurship Programs director at the Victoria Business School stated that the Lightning Lab GovTech program will harness the institution’s capabilities especially on entrepreneurship, government, and innovation.
The program is also bound to facilitate the training, up-skilling, and education of the country’s entrepreneurial talents as well as provide researchers with the perfect opportunity to engage in international scholarship. As such, governments globally are finding it hard to keep up with the current numerous digital transformations. This program will hence seek to overcome the current challenges in the public sector. It will also contribute to making New Zealand a global hub of government innovation, further adding to the uniqueness of the country with regards to R&D.
Such undertakings by the government show that it is committed to ensure that it provides a perfect environment for all stakeholders in the public sector, which has for a long time been deserted. Therefore, there is a bright future for the public sector if this program progresses successfully.
