Latest / Best of Business / John MacDonald: Less eyebrow raising, more glad-eye for foreign investors

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John MacDonald: Less eyebrow raising, more glad-eye for foreign investors · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: I reckon, we need to get over ourselves here in
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand when it comes to foreign investment, and it
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  Speaker 2: looks like we're going to have to get over ourselves,
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  Speaker 2: whether we want to or not. Worth the government's plan
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  Speaker 2: to make it easier for foreign investors to buy New
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  Speaker 2: Zealand companies and properties. Now, the way I describe it
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  Speaker 2: is that at the moment, the government thinks we treat
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  Speaker 2: overseas investors as if they're going through customs, you know,
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  Speaker 2: all suspicious and what the hell are you doing here?
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  Speaker 2: All suspicious about their motivations for coming here, Whereas the
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  Speaker 2: government thinks we should be more like the duty free
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  Speaker 2: shop putting down the welcome map selling New Zealand to
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  Speaker 2: overseas investors. You know, give them what's another word, putting,
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  Speaker 2: and I give them a bit more of the glad
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  Speaker 2: eye and less of the raised eyebrow. And I'm all
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  Speaker 2: for that. I'm all for it because modern New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: was built on overseas investment, was built on overseas investment.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's been perfect, but I agree with
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  Speaker 2: the government's plan to open the doors more to foreign
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  Speaker 2: investors because the alternative is to keep languishing, you know,
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  Speaker 2: blindly pressing on under our own steam, convincing ourselves that
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  Speaker 2: we're a country that can do without foreign money. And
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  Speaker 2: anyone who thinks that is dreaming. So we had two
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  Speaker 2: announcements about this at the weekend. The first came on Saturday,
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  Speaker 2: when an associate of Finance Minister David Seymour announced that
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  Speaker 2: the Coalition government had agreed to change the laws around
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  Speaker 2: foreign investment, saying that the way we're doing it at
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  Speaker 2: the moment makes us the worst in the world. Oh really, yep.
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  Speaker 2: Out of thirty eight countries, we come last in terms
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  Speaker 2: of being open to investment from overseas. And he says
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  Speaker 2: the government wants to reverse the idea that you know
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  Speaker 2: that investors need to convince the government why they should
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  Speaker 2: be allowed to invest here, and changing it to us
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  Speaker 2: telling them why they should be coming. No more encouragement,
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  Speaker 2: less policing or less to the customs officertain approach. You
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  Speaker 2: might heard Oliver hat which he's a foreign investment expert
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  Speaker 2: with the New Zealand Initiative Think Tank. He was on
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  Speaker 2: with Mike this morning and he was saying that he
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  Speaker 2: thinks we shouldn't just be making it easier for investors
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  Speaker 2: to spend money on businesses here. He thinks we should
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  Speaker 2: be going the howle hog have listen to this.
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  Speaker 3: We should actually say we make it easy for you
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  Speaker 3: to come and invest in a business. And by the way,
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  Speaker 3: of course, we also make it easy for you to
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  Speaker 3: buy a house. I would even go a step further.
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  Speaker 3: I would say, and then we make it easy for
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  Speaker 3: you to get visa for your staff, and we actually
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  Speaker 3: roll out the red carpet to make it all happen
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  Speaker 3: because it has to be a consistent package. If you
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  Speaker 3: go to the most successful countries in the world when
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  Speaker 3: it comes to foreign liked investment, like Ireland, like Singapore,
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  Speaker 3: that's exactly what they do. There are dedicated agencies making
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  Speaker 3: it as easy as possible for these international investors to come.
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  Speaker 2: So that's the new Zealand initiative. Think tank guy saying,
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  Speaker 2: let the foreign let the foreigners buy the businesses, but
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  Speaker 2: also let them buy houses. And wouldn't you know it,
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  Speaker 2: Winston Peters, who's always been anti foreigners buying houses here,
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  Speaker 2: he says he would be open to changing his position
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  Speaker 2: if the right investors came along. So after David Seymore
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  Speaker 2: announced on Saturday that the government plans to loosen the
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  Speaker 2: rules about for or around foreign investment, Winston Peter's made
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  Speaker 2: his big announcement yesterday that New Zealand First wants to
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  Speaker 2: see a one hundred billion dollar future funds set up
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  Speaker 2: to ensure we have the money for all the big
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  Speaker 2: infrastructure projects that need doing. Money, of course, would have
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  Speaker 2: to come from overseas, which is why he said to
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  Speaker 2: Mike this morning that he might not be so hard
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  Speaker 2: lying on foreigners buying houses here if it means getting
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  Speaker 2: the type of investment he wants.
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  Speaker 4: So he's going to come in with the lousy twenty million. Now,
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  Speaker 4: I think we're not going to be cutting ice for him.
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  Speaker 4: But if he's in with a whole she's in with
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  Speaker 4: a whole lot of money. Beyond that, we'd consider it,
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  Speaker 4: because you know, the first thing they're going to do
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  Speaker 4: is spend about five or six million on twenty five million
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  Speaker 4: dollar investment on our dreaming gone this on the house,
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  Speaker 4: and they's one quarter gone straight up.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, all right, you're open that you are open to
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  Speaker 2: the idea but because here's my point. My point is
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  Speaker 2: that if you want to invest.
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  Speaker 4: In as a center for the right investor, we'll consider anything.
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  Speaker 1: You see.
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  Speaker 2: I thought it was there's a little there was a
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  Speaker 2: little bit of weirdness about the two announcements. I thought
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  Speaker 2: it was kind of weird that mister Peters said this
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  Speaker 2: morning that he hadn't sent anything before David Seymour announced
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  Speaker 2: the changes to the foreign investment rules on Saturday. But nevertheless,
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  Speaker 2: that was the only bit of weirdness. Nevertheless, they seem
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  Speaker 2: to be on the same page, and I'm with them
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  Speaker 2: on this one. I'm with the government. I think we
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  Speaker 2: have no choice but to make it easier for foreign
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  Speaker 2: investors to buy in New Zealand companies and properties for
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  Speaker 2: the simple reason that we're a tiny outfit and we
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  Speaker 2: are dreaming if we think we can do it all
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  Speaker 2: on our own, and also because if we don't attract
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  Speaker 2: these investors, they will go somewhere else, somewhere else that
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  Speaker 2: doesn't put up as many barriers as we do.
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