"The [business] opportunities across Maoridom are huge if we work together," he said.
During the keynote speech, Mr Solomon, who has been chairman of the body administering Ngai Tahu's business interests since 1998, referred to a wide range of experiences, including gaining access to private health care providers for iwi members, taking a "commonsense" approach to potential pan-demics and developing business relationships with other tribal groups.
Soon after the group's $170 million Treaty of Waitangi settlement with the Crown in 1996, disagreements between "factions" in Ngai Tahu's holding company could potentially have limited growth.
Some wanted the corporation to assume control of Crown lease buildings while others believed buying Landcorp farms would provide a good investment base, he said.
The successful resolution of disagreements led to Ngai Tahu Holdings diversifying, developing subsidiary interests in property investment and development, fisheries and tourism.
One of these companies, Ngai Tahu Property Ltd, has seen its 1994, $5.6 million asset base grow to $256 million in 2005.
It is now one of the largest property companies in the South Island.
Mr Solomon said he believed a unified Maori economic system, with proportional returns on investment, could provide more leverage for Maori.
He described how sharing management documents with representatives of Ngapuhi led to an offer from the North Island-based iwi to share fisheries quota as an example of how cross-tribal arrangements could be mutually beneficial.
Future prosperity of the group was an imperative as, unlike conventional entities, tribal-based corporations such as Ngai Tahu had an "intergenerational" obligation to their people to continue operations, he said.
Mr Solomon has represented the Kaikoura runanga since 1988 and has also been a Takahanga marae trustee and on the board of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (2001-07), as well as holding several directorships.
