Latest / Best of Business / Brad Olsen: Infometrics principal economist on the OECD Secretary-General visiting New Zealand for the first time

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Brad Olsen: Infometrics principal economist on the OECD Secretary-General visiting New Zealand for the first time · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Trades on the Agenda in Wellington tonight, the OECD's Secretary
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  Speaker 2: General is in town for his first official visit to
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand and Brad Olson, infa Metric principal economist, is there. Hey, Brad,
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  Speaker 2: good evening. So what's the message that he's delivering.
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  Speaker 3: I think you're just a sort of a complicated messaging
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  Speaker 3: that we've been hearing a lot the last year or so.
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  Speaker 3: Where look, New Zealand is trying to grow our trade.
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  Speaker 3: The governments of course set that expectation to double the
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  Speaker 3: value of trade over the next decade. But at the
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  Speaker 3: same time we're all navigating those difficult international conversations. There's
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  Speaker 3: a lot more geopolitical risk and challenge out there, and
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  Speaker 3: so you know, we're working through all of that. But
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  Speaker 3: I think as well, it was quite interesting to hear
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  Speaker 3: from the Secretar General that focus that is coming through
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  Speaker 3: a lot at the moment on economic growth. We know
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  Speaker 3: that the rest of the world is still sort of
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  Speaker 3: struggling through those high inflation, high interest rate times, but
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  Speaker 3: the area of Southeast Asia was singled out as a
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  Speaker 3: real growth area at the moment, and of course that's
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  Speaker 3: somewhere where New Zealand has a lot more focus in
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  Speaker 3: recent times. So encouraging to see that sort of profile
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  Speaker 3: and spotlight on our part of the world.
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  Speaker 2: We apparently want to double trade in the next ten years.
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  Speaker 2: Well not apparently, we do. We want to double trade
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  Speaker 2: in the next ten years. Two way trade between ourselves
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  Speaker 2: and thirty eight OECD nations is something like fifty billion dollars.
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  Speaker 2: How much more can we push that up?
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  Speaker 1: Well?
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  Speaker 3: And I think that's a sort of a really interesting
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  Speaker 3: question as we look through over time because and what
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  Speaker 3: I was a little bit struck by was that we
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  Speaker 3: heard from the Secretary General that New Zealand has done
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  Speaker 3: extra ordinary well, you know, promoting our products and similar
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  Speaker 3: on the global stage. And so I think it's one
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  Speaker 3: of those areas where when we're thinking about the future,
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  Speaker 3: is it the same sort of products that we've always
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  Speaker 3: been providing out or actually the brand new products that
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  Speaker 3: we can think of into the future. And I think
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  Speaker 3: it's that area that sort of you know, dreaming up newer, bigger,
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  Speaker 3: shinier stuff that we've got to be focused on now.
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  Speaker 2: The Prime Minister is off to Malaysia and I think
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  Speaker 2: it's South Korea next week. I mean, do you think
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  Speaker 2: these are important trade trips?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's sort of critical. I mean here we're
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  Speaker 3: you know, Lila on New Zealand, team of five million
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  Speaker 3: and the team of eight billion globally. You know, we
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  Speaker 3: don't necessarily register on everyone's scale each and every day.
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  Speaker 3: So by being able to get out there, I think,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we do actually sort of promote our sales
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  Speaker 3: up the bord a bit more. I have sort of been,
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  Speaker 3: you know, quite encouraged by the fact that, you know,
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  Speaker 3: you have seen government ministers out across the world. There's
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  Speaker 3: been a lot of international trips. We've seen the Prime
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  Speaker 3: Minister already, you know, often in Japan and similar earlier
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  Speaker 3: this year. You know, we've had the Trade Minister out
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  Speaker 3: across the world. In fact, there was a stop last year.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think he literally slept. He slept only on
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  Speaker 3: planes rather than booking a hotel room. So all of
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  Speaker 3: this is encouraging. Of course, had the UN Secretary General
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  Speaker 3: here last week, the OECD Secretory General here. At the moment,
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  Speaker 3: like it does feel like there is a real international
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  Speaker 3: focus coming from New Zealand at the moment, and I
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  Speaker 3: am encouraged because that's the way we're going to have
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  Speaker 3: to make connections. We're going to have to trade with
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  Speaker 3: those connections, and the way you do that is by
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  Speaker 3: pressing the flesh and getting in front of people.
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  Speaker 2: Brad, it's good to talk to you, mate, Go and
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  Speaker 2: enjoy the evening. That's Brad Olson, Infametrix Principal Economist.
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