Falealii To Sign RSE Friendship Agreement With Hastings
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Caption:Hastings District Council Chief Executive Nigel Bickle and Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst will visit Samoa in May 22 to 25.
Later this month, Hastings and the Falealili community willsign a friendship agreements in regard to RSE personnel. The Mayor of Hastings and the CEO of the Hastings District Council will go to Samoa
on a ratepayer-funded trip.
During the trip, which will take place from May 22 to 25, Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst and CEO Nigel Bickle will formally establish a friendship relationship with the Falealili area of Samoa.
"Our horticulture industry has been seriously impacted by the cyclone - the devastation hit at the worst possible time as they prepared for harvest and the impact on their businesses and the regional economy as a whole is enormous," Hazlehurst said in an interview with Hawkes Bay
Today.
"This friendship pact will assist to establish new ties and improve those we currently have. The RSE workers have already played and will continue to play a big part in supporting the sector's recovery."
The mayor says RSE personnel are expected to play a significant role in aiding the horticultural industry's recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle, and the tour is intended to develop links with the towns
that send RSE workers to the area.For the trip, the council has allocated between $10,000 and $12,000.
150 people from the Falealili neighborhood on the island of Upolu worked in the Bay last season.The majority of RSE jobs in New Zealand are located in Hawke's Bay. Each year, thousands of RSE workers come to the area to work in vineyards and horticulture.