Otago Forward is made up of the mayors of Otago's territorial authorities, the Otago Regional Council (ORC) chairman, four private directors and representatives of the Otago Chamber of Commerce.
It was established about 10 years ago, as an economic development initiative, but the regional council raised concerns earlier this year about its effectiveness.
Regional council chairman Stephen Cairns said at a full council meeting yesterday he was pleased to give Otago Forward a glowing report in relation to its involvement in the early stages of the Otago Design Institute project.
"This is a 'home run' for Otago Forward and our council deserves to be proud of our commitment to the early stages of this Otago Forward project."
The council had committed $90,000 over three years to the project.
Cr Sam Neill said since he had been on the council, he had not heard anything very positive about Otago Forward, so he wondered why the "glowing reports".
Mr Cairns said it was a matter of timing and the "maturation" of processes as a lot of work had been done in the past three to six months through the economic development strategy review.
However, council chief executive Graeme Martin said he preferred to think of Otago Forward as being "on probation" .
"It appears that all Otago councils will commit to funding of Otago Forward and the new projects but development of those new projects will be the proof of the pudding."
A project it was looking at was the expansion of the organic pipfruit model to a wider organics produce under a Central Otago banner, he said.
