Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Simon Arcus: Wellington Chamber of Commerce CEO on the changes to the Government's procurement rules

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Simon Arcus: Wellington Chamber of Commerce CEO on the changes to the Government's procurement rules · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, this sounds like a dry old story, but
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: it's not. The Government's proposing changes to procurement rules. This
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: is to make it easier for New Zealand businesses to
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: win government contracts. Currently, there are seventy one rules that
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: agencies have to follow when tendering contracts, and the government
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: wants to reduce it to forty seven. The Economic growth
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: of Minister Nichola Willis, who is on with Mike later tonight,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Later this morning, she says, the contracts are collectively worth
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: more than fifty billion dollars a year. We've got the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Wellington Chamber of Commerce CEO Simon Arcis with me this morning.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Go on into you assignment.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Good morning here, How are you good?
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm fine. This is a good idea where those
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: rules a ridiculous.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Well, it's really good for New Zealand business. And part
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: of the reason for that is because we now recognize
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: the extra contribution that New Zealand businesses make. For example,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: they employ people that pay tax versus this is another
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: you know, international entity which might not.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: This is true and this is why the cutting of
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: government spending on all sorts of kind track around the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: place has actually had a ripple effect that's gone through
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: our entire economy because these people play tax in New Zealand.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: So there we go. How big of a difference in
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: cutting red take will this make?
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Look? It's a big change, and I think it's also
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: what we really getting from that is the theme. This
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: is what we want to see. You want to see
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: it easier to do these sorts of things. And I
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: don't think it overly advantages in New Zealand business in
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: any way. So it's actually very sensible move, a good idea, I.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Hope, well for things like you know, the living wage
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: cutting that and the evs and all that sort of thing.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: What they've done is have introduced what's called an economic
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: benefit test to the regime, so everything has to be
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: looked at to see whether the bid is economically beneficial
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: to New Zealand. Should this have been happening with government
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: processes and procurement from the get go?
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it should, and I think in some
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: ways perhaps it was read in their times when decisions
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: were made, but it's really good to see it explicit,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: and I agree with Andrew from the get go we
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: should have had these kind.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Of Okay, are the new Zealand businesses who want contract.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Is there a demand for it?
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Very much so. And I'll tell you what. The other
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: thing that's quite exciting about it is that you end
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: up being able to perhaps a ward a contract to
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: a business that can scale up. So they say, you know,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: we can do this. We're just going to have to,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: you know, get a few few extra people and we'll
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: we'll make it work. And that's that's great if there
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: are opportunities like that created along the way, but it.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Could advantage New Zealand business right at the time when
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: we're trying to attract international investment. We've got a conference
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: coming up this week for instance. You know, if we're
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: advantaging New Zealand businesses, are we actually turning our back
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: on international opportunities.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: I don't think so, because you'll find these sorts of
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: rules are quite explicit and lots of jurisdiction. They're not
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: They're not unusual at all. And when you think about,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: you know, the way that some businesses employee you know,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: almost whole communities and they are involved in philanthropic work
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: and other things you do you do need to, I think,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: recognize the extra value giving you and why not why
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: not I keep New Zealand's using business a little bit
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: of a you know, consideration, very good stuff.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Simon Arkisan, I thank you for your time today. And
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Simon is the Wellington Chamber of Commerce CEO.
• 3:14
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• 3:18
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• 3:21
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