NZTE has just presented a stellar annual report to the Commerce Select Committee. The new CEO Peter Chrisp and Chair John Mayson deserve credit.
Costs are down, focus is up, strategy is sharper. Performance measures are more rigorous.
NZTE’s emerging success gives the lie, however, to Bill English’s comment that there is nothing to be done about economic growth “it is what it is”.
And NZTE’s focussed success contrasts with the haphazard approach taken by Economic Development Minister Joyce’s to doing shady deals with individual corporates.
None of media (Canwest); Casinos (SkyCity) international film giants (Warner Bros) feature within NZTE’s strategy for target clients.
So if they are not prioirities for the experts, why is their Minister treating them so?
Likewise on FDI, NZTE is focussed on high-spillover investment that adds value to NZ, NOT selling farmland or assets that already exist. So why are National politicians doing the opposite?
*vigorous
Oh. I assumed figorous covered it when the numbers are robust.
It’s a neologism almost as adorable as David’s beard.
@Commission: Rigorous (correction made, fair cop)
Canwest are long gone from media in NZ, in fact gone as in down the gurgler.
Ironbridge private equity are the ones left holding the bathwater.
“why is their Minister treating them so?” Maybe it is because he sees some advantage not connected to the nation’s economic growth? It could not possibly be about his party’s economic growth? Nor could it be about his own personal economic growth? So what could it be?
@Ghost: nothing personal re Ironbridge, but isnt this a typical pattern – target company overloaded with debt by LBO process; wheels come off. I concede Canwest was under genuine financial strss, but that does not mean there is a case for special favours that ultiimatly subsidise the financiers…not to mention the questions abotMr joyce’s personal judgement in failing to manage pereption issues around a company that he himself once personally owned. What was not obvious about that?
So ate you saying that the government is not supporting NZTE? If so can you point me to some information?
@Jack not exactly, I am saying that Mr Joyce is flying solo and that is very high risk
Very high risk? I’m sure that Joyce has hedged the risk to himself very well; taxpayers like the rest of us will likely be the ones to wear it however.
David, I have to say you got owned in the House today. I know you’ve been in Parliament for twelve years, but don’t you think over that time you might have learned how to seek leave to table documents?
I’m very interested in your claim that it is a priority for Mr Joyce to sell farmland to overseas interests. Are you saying it was a similarly high priority for your last Government, and for NZTE when you were a senior minister, given the hundreds of thousands of hectares your government allowed to be sold to overseas interests?
David, personally I think it’s an inspired decision by the government to have MED, science and innovation and associate TEC under one minister. It’s the best chance we have for developing more Jobs in the high tech manufacture sector. I guess the next budget will tell us if this is going to be a winner or fizzer.
@IMpact. There was method in the need to show the relevant stats.
@JR. I agree the is some good logic in those links, provided they are supported by appropriate ministerial actions executing a balanced and effective strategy. Both the latter are missing in my view.
@IMpact. There was method in the need to show the relevant stats.
@JR. I agree the is some good logic in those links, provided they are supported by appropriate ministerial actions executing a balanced and effective strategy. Both the latter are missing in my view.
David you only addressed half of my comment. If by “method” you mean you were trying to beat Winston in being the first MP to be booted out of this Parliament by the Speaker, then you lost that one too.
The H word certainly comes to mind when you try to make capital of whether NZTE’s priority is the sale of land to overseas interests, given your government’s record.
The National Govt gutted MoRST and deliberately pushed out many very senior and experienced operators.
This is a joke. Who cares what the org chart at the top says when all the muscle down below has been consciously eaten away.
CV do you actually know what you are talking about? MoRST was a toothless tiger and FRST was too bust picking winners. The two stage process for FRST funding was a huge drain in the scientists time and we were too busy competing against the other CRIs and unis to even contemplate collaborating for the scare funding dollars available. The current MSI system with core funding is heaven compared to the bureaucratic hell we went through since DSIR was split up. Honestly I don’t care that some MoRST policy analysts wereade redundant if it means more science dollars can go to those at the bench. N
“scare funding”
Given how minister david carter scrapped Labour’s science/tech r&d funding plans in 2008, that’s quite some feudian slip.
Except that FRST lost almost all their staff with experience—so in the current MSI finding round we see changes to the requirements for proposals *after* the process has started, and the timetable being arranged so that it coincides with the *start of teaching* for the Unis!
Unlike IRL, the Unis cant “clear the decks” in order to spend full time on proposals.
Some lingering experienced staff would have been nice—at least there might have been a level playing field vis a vis timing.
judging by the spiteful response from the usual trolls, it seems you’ve hit a nerve david….
this is becoming a recurring pattern right across the spectrum of blogs at present….
stick it hard to them david… the tories are getting nervous….as evidenced by the ugly, personal rhetoric favored by the prime minister whenever he is asked serious questions..
the possibility of an early election is strong… thinking new zealanders need to have a comprehensive and cogent plan to rebalance the economic and social health of new zealand as fast as possible….
the asset strippers and their vassals in government need to be stopped before they sell our childrens future to the same lunatics that have dragged the rest of the world into an accelerated descent into ruin….
The whole setup for ‘contestable funding’ for science research seemed to be designed(?) to waste as much time as possible at the expense of doing the research that had been commissioned. Basically looking in the kids’ piggy banks for trifles of funding.
Plus encouraging the loss of senior scientists (aka early retirement)… So much more than simply the people was lost in the rush to be ‘like the big blokes overseas with their soliciting for funds’. It will take many years to refill the reservoirs of knowledge that allow low-priced funding bids to be made.
And exploiting people who simply want to do scientific work without having to play at business, who’ll work for free, even… We lesser minds would be incapable of such folly.
What is required is a strategic approach to penetrate global markets, the cost for small exporters to get into major markets without Government assistance is prohibitive. Likewise smaller companies do not have the resouces to do research and development work.
I think alot of Government monies are wasted on frivilous ideas and cocktail parties.
Joint industry strategic marketing programs need to be developed incorporating exporters, research and development and Government to penerate world markets.
The wine market in Asia is a typical example whereby it may take another 10-15 years to break into say Japan or China, to get good volumes into those markets because of the established French and other high profile world brands.
The free market ideologies which NZ has been following since Roger Douglas are seriously flawed and have taken NZ down a dangerous path. In the 1970′s the buzz around business circles was Export Incentives and look for Export Opportunities, the system was rorted by some, however there were entrepreneurs out their looking for opportunities in the horticultural field where we saw the expansion of the kiwifruit and the grape industries. Fishing and forestry exports were growing and there was diversification taking place in manufactured dairy products.
In recent years the emphasis has been placed on speculative house trading, currency speculation and asset stripping.
New Zealand has been gutted, young New Zealanders can not afford houses, the Nations nett worth (Equity) has been stripped and our overseas debt is spiralling.
Government over the years need to man up and say we got it wrong rather than looking for someone else to blame all the time.
The hands off free market economy has worked for a few selected people who have been close to the action and have benefitted from the disposal of key State Assets.
Government, private industry, and research and development all have to work together to get this country headed in the right direction.
Pokies at the Casino, ultrafast broadband, and a Holiday Highway to Whangarei are not going to solve New Zealand’s economic woes.