Business website to be launched to help Christchurch

A business help website is to be launched in Hamilton to assist Christchurch businesses who may need urgent short term help.

The website will be a joint initiative between Hamilton City Council, Opportunity Hamilton and the Waikato Chamber of Commerce.

It is expected that the website will be up and running in a few days.

In announcing the creation of the initiative, Hamilton Mayor Julie Hardaker says the help website is a practical way in which Hamilton businesses can help their Christchurch counterparts.

“This is very much businesses speaking to businesses about what they might be able to do to help in a time of crisis. From the city and regions point of view we need to be able to coordinate our offer of help and the website is a great way to do this,” says Mayor Hardaker.

The website will be designed so that businesses from the city and region can register the help and resources they could provide to Christchurch.

Sandy Turner from Opportunity Hamilton says the website will effectively act as an interactive register of resources.

“We’ve already had offers of help from local business and this will be a way to gather up further offers and to get the message through directly to Christchurch.

“Some of the help that might be considered includes businesses in Hamilton temporarily offering to take on apprentices from Canterbury who may not have work as a result of the earthquake. There might also be offers of short term accommodation for business or help with manufacturing or completing contracts or unfinished orders. Any Hamilton business that has some spare capacity may want to think about how they could help,” says Ms Turner.

The website address will be publicised as soon as it is operational.

In the meantime offers of help can be registered with the Waikato Chamber of Commerce on 07 839 5895 or Opportunity Hamilton on 07 959 8693.