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Oliver Hartwich: NZ Initiative executive director on new law reforms to allow for overseas investment · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So foreign investment talk. Over the weekend Saturday, David Seymour
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: an Act announced reform that will make it easier for
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: foreigners to buying local companies and properties. Then yesterday New
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Zealand first announced the Future Investment Fund idea that they
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: will take to the next election in twenty twenty six. Now,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the New Zealand Initiatives executive Director Oliver haartwhich with us
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  Speaker 1: on all of this, oliber morning to you, good morning,
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  Speaker 1: wife Seymour said over the weekend we're thirty eight out
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of thirty eight with reputation. We sort of thumb our
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  Speaker 1: nose to the world. Is he right?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, he's absolutely right. And we've known this for many years.
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand has always been one of the hardest places
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  Speaker 2: for international investors to come and invest, and we've been
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  Speaker 2: ranked in these rankings really at the bottom really for decades,
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  Speaker 2: and that's why that part of globalization has always bypassed
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: New Zealand. Actually the share of FDI in our GDPs
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  Speaker 2: law than it used to be twenty five years ago,
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  Speaker 2: whereas most other countries have advanced. Or David Seymour is
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: absolutely spot on.
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  Speaker 1: What's our problem? Were we use in aphobic.
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  Speaker 2: Not necessarily zonophobic, but we just don't like foreign capital.
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  Speaker 2: We just make it very too hard foreign capital to
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: come to New Zealand and be deployed here. We check them,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: we put them through a massive bureaucratic process, and you
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: know what, New Zealand's a nice to have for these
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  Speaker 2: international investors. They look at or bureaucracy and say, actually,
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  Speaker 2: is it really worth playing in New Zealand or should
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  Speaker 2: we just go somewhere else? And then they typically look
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  Speaker 2: at that and invest elsewhere.
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  Speaker 1: Have we got two completely different things over the week
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  Speaker 1: in one from Seymour, two from Peter's or are they
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  Speaker 1: sorted the same thing?
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  Speaker 2: Well, they are related. I mean the significance about Peter's investment,
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  Speaker 2: especially in the context of Seymour's, is that New Zealand first,
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  Speaker 2: for a long time was one of the road blocks
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  Speaker 2: to reforms. They didn't want to reform the Obsea's investment
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  Speaker 2: at Seymour now says we have cabinet approval that means
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand verst is in. And then just top it
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  Speaker 2: up when St. Peter's announced that actually they would like
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  Speaker 2: to go at one step further and even have a
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  Speaker 2: future fund based on international investment. So that's a very
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  Speaker 2: clear signal that New Zealand First has changed their minds
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  Speaker 2: and so that can only be good news.
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  Speaker 1: Can New Zealand First change their mind on that while
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  Speaker 1: still blocking foreigners buying houses.
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  Speaker 2: Actually none of the investments are about houses. This is
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  Speaker 2: really about business investment and both Winston Peters and David
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  Speaker 2: Seymour have made it clear that they want to get
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: capital into the economy with the goal of making us
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  Speaker 2: more productive. That's not about houses at the moment. It's
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  Speaker 2: really about genuine business investment to lift our productivity here.
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  Speaker 1: Well, if you're an equity fund, sure and hundreds of
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  Speaker 1: millions of dollars, I get that. But what if you're
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  Speaker 1: in a business investment man who wants to bring in
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  Speaker 1: thirty forty million dollars into the country, and you like
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: New Zealand you think, actually, it wouldn't mind buying a
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  Speaker 1: house and you can't.
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  Speaker 2: That of course is an inconsistency, and actually we've said
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  Speaker 2: that before the last selection when those plans were discussed.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: I think actually we cannot do the two things together.
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  Speaker 2: We should actually say we make it easy for you
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  Speaker 2: to come and invest in a business. And by the
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: way of course, we also make it easy for you
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  Speaker 2: to buy a house. I wouldn't go a step further,
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  Speaker 2: I would say, and then we make it easy for
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: you to get visa for your staff. And we actually
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  Speaker 2: roll out the red carpet to make it all happen
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  Speaker 2: because it has to be a consistent package. If you
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  Speaker 2: go to the most successful countries in the world when
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: it comes to foreign arked investment, like Ireland, like Singapore,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: that's exactly what they do. There are dedicated agencies making
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  Speaker 2: it as easy as possible for these international investors to come.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Always enjoy your company, Oliver, appreciate Oliver Heart which you
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  Speaker 1: had a New Zealand initiative