The Government’s $1.2 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF) opens to applicants today, though officials are still finalising the assessment process.
The pot will be divided into two parts. There’s $720 million for “resilience infrastructure” – helping to provide for regional resilience in the face of flooding and extraordinary storms, for example, and for the likes of energy security.
The second part is $420m for “enabling infrastructure”: projects that can underpin stronger regional economies and increase lagging productivity.
$60m is set aside for the Government’s “emerging priorities”, a designation that, in the case of the Provincial Growth Fund, proved to be distinctly slushy.
The $720 million for resilience infrastructure looks potentially useful.
I am sceptical of the $420 million for enabling infrastructure as that may just go to projects with inflated business cases as we have seen too often.
Eligible projects must be outside the metropolitan areas of Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, and there are no regions with priority.
That’s an improvement.
Some grants will be made, but equity and debt, which may be on concessionary terms, will be the focus. And the fund’s investments will range, in the main, from $1m to $50m.
My preference is debt followed by equity followed by grants.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
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