Latest / Best of Business / Catherine Beard: Business NZ Advocacy Director on the establishment of Invest New Zealand

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Catherine Beard: Business NZ Advocacy Director on the establishment of Invest New Zealand · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk zed B. Follow
• 0:12
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• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Today, we'll officially have a new regulatory body for overseas investment.
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  Speaker 2: Invest in Z is an agency set up to help
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  Speaker 2: attract and retain large investment from overseas buyers. Responsible Minister
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Tom McClay hopes US will create jobs and boost productivity.
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  Speaker 2: Catherine Beds, the Business in ZED Advocacy director, with us
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  Speaker 2: this morning. Catherine, good morning, Good morning. So this is
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  Speaker 2: obviously going to be an expensive exercise. I think forty
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  Speaker 2: five million dollars over the next few years. Are we
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  Speaker 2: sure eighty five million dollars over four years to establish
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  Speaker 2: it and it's as itself as an autonomous Crown entity.
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  Speaker 2: Is it going to be worth it? Do we think? Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Look, we definitely had to do something, Ryan. We are
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  Speaker 3: one of the hardest places to invest in the OECD
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  Speaker 3: and as everybody knows, investment is the lifeblood of economic success,
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  Speaker 3: so we needed to make it easier and I think
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  Speaker 3: this is a really good start. It will be much
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  Speaker 3: much more of a bespoke concierge sort of approach. I
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  Speaker 3: think they've looked at Ireland and other countries that do
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  Speaker 3: it far better than we do. And my understanding is
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  Speaker 3: it's going to be quite a small, lean and mean
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  Speaker 3: agency as well, and they're taking some of that work
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  Speaker 3: away from MZTE, so hopefully it's not going to be
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  Speaker 3: too expensive.
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  Speaker 2: Right And do you what sort of people do you
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  Speaker 2: think that they'll be hiring.
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  Speaker 4: Look, I've heard that it'll be people with really good
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  Speaker 4: roll indecks of international investors and connections, so they should
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  Speaker 4: be well connected to investors around the world, and you know,
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  Speaker 4: they should be also looking at where the opportunities are
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  Speaker 4: here and where our gaps are and where.
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  Speaker 3: We actually need investment. So well connected people. Not a
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  Speaker 3: lot of them my understanding, but well connected all right.
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  Speaker 2: So we will live and across our fingers and hope
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  Speaker 2: and pray that this works. We need to, of course,
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  Speaker 2: have attractive investments here to begin with. Is this is
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  Speaker 2: our problem just cosmetic We're not you know, advertising ourselves
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  Speaker 2: well enough? Or are there a lack of viable attractive deals?
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  Speaker 1: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think there'll be a lot to invest in
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  Speaker 3: in New Zealand. You know, as you know, we have
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  Speaker 3: a big infrastructure deficit. There's a lot of spending that
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  Speaker 3: needs to be done. And yeah, and you know, look,
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  Speaker 3: I think we've got a lot of opportunities in the
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  Speaker 3: future if we get into some more long term thinking.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, business is Zealand we're advocating thirty years.
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  Speaker 3: You know, have a thirty year horizon. What will we need,
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  Speaker 3: what could we be great at and let's have a
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  Speaker 3: plan and get on with it.
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  Speaker 2: Catherine, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you for coming on.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Catherine Beard. Business Ends Advocacy Directed for.
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