Yesterday I went to a business presentation that had Chairman of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, Peter Townsend, outlining where he thinks the Christchurch rebuild is at. Some interesting stats;
1. Biggest insurance event ever.
2. Rebuild has not even started ie 700 of 25,000 houses fixed, 10,000 new houses needed.
3. Road repairs & horizontal infrastructure upgrades have 3 further years to run.
4. Big decisions still to make for the city centre and the plan.
5. $40Bn plus coming into the economy.
Overall the message I took away was that whilst there are many issues to address, problems to overcome and some big unknowns (no one has rebuilt a NZ city on this scale before) the overall economic picture for Christchurch and the country is very positive. The next ten years are going to be busy and productive ones.
Bring it on Christchurch.
Leading from the front 