Kāpiti Coast Chamber of Commerce is asking the local business community to take a proactive and positive approach, as we start a new year with continued COVID-19 restrictions.

Many local businesses have again swung into action on contactless operations, working from home and online offerings, and it is these, says Chamber co-chair Monique Leith, that are vital tools to embrace and support as we get stuck into what we all hope will be the last year affected by such restrictions.

“We want to get the message out that the red traffic light setting doesn’t mean stop. As we have seen in the past, people working from home can actually positively benefit our local economy, as there is more localised spending happening,” she says.

“We strongly encourage people to keep buying local, supporting our local retailers and hospitality venues with many of these now implementing seamless contactless and online services”.

The Chamber is itself accepting that 2022 will be another year of precautions, being mindful, and keeping our communities safe, Monique Leith says.

“We are focused on providing learning and development opportunities to the business community and will be embracing online platforms for the foreseeable future. We’re currently canvassing our members to see what topics they would love to learn about this year, and are expecting that COVID-related resilience and agile operations will be top of the list for many businesses”