Auckland can become the country's economic powerhouse by investing in workers and increasing exports, Auckland Council says.

The council today launched a 10-year plan that will focus on transforming the economy from a domestically focussed service economy to a high-value export economy.

To do that, it aims to make the city business friendly and "well-functioning" and to develop an innovation hub across Asia and the Pacific, Mayor Len Brown said.

It would also make the city more export-driven, invest in the local workforce by growing skills and developing a "vibrant creative international city".

Brown said the city needed to focus less on property speculation and more on the base of productive trade sectors, which would earn overseas exchange and provide skilled jobs.

"Auckland will be a region where innovation thrives and doing business is easy, a place of opportunity, investment and connection - an exciting city, full of vibrancy and diversity."

Brown said by focussing on exports, Auckland's economic growth would be driven by the larger, faster growing economies of its trading partners and grow local businesses by selling into larger overseas markets.

Harvey Brookes, the council's economic development manager, said the strategy had "ambitious economic goals".

That included an average increase of regional exports of more than six per cent a year, an average annual GDP increase of more than five per cent and a two per cent increase on productivity annually.

Brookes said good steps had already been made to allow the city to progress including the roll-out of broadband across the region, the designation process for Brown's city rail link and the Manukau eastern transport initiative.

- © Fairfax NZ News