Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Oliver Hartwich: NZ Initiative Executive Director on Luxon's new foreign investment agency

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Oliver Hartwich: NZ Initiative Executive Director on Luxon's new foreign investment agency · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Now, during his State of the Nation speech, Prime Minister
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  Speaker 1: Christopher Luxon announced a new foreign investment agency with the
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  Speaker 1: aim of driving more overseas revenue to our shores. It's
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  Speaker 1: a model based on Ireland in Singapore, and we'll see
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  Speaker 1: Invest New Zealand become part of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise,
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  Speaker 1: which will become an autonomous Crown entity. Oliver Hartwich is
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  Speaker 1: the executive director for the New Zealand Initiative and he
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  Speaker 1: joins me, now, thanks for your.
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  Speaker 2: Time, Oliver, Yeah, good morning.
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  Speaker 1: You took I believe you took the Prime Minister on
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  Speaker 1: overseas trips to see how a model like this could work.
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  Speaker 1: What do you make of the announcement.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's a wonderful announcement because it's exactly what
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand needs. And you're right, we traveled with a
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  Speaker 2: Prime minister. We traveled with him to Switzerland and Denmark
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  Speaker 2: when he was a member of our group. But we
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  Speaker 2: also took another group to Ireland and we encountered the
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  Speaker 2: IDA Ireland Agency, exactly the model on which Invest New
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  Speaker 2: Zealand is now based, and so we saw how it works.
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  Speaker 2: We sought in practice and from that perspective, I can
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  Speaker 2: tell you this is exactly the kind of investment agency
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  Speaker 2: that really makes a difference, that attracts for investors to
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  Speaker 2: the country, and that creates jobs and opportunities. So I'm
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  Speaker 2: not surprised that Cristopher Luxen is enthusiastic about this model,
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  Speaker 2: because we were too.
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  Speaker 1: What's going to be key to its success? Oliver, Well, the.
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  Speaker 2: Really important thing is actually that it goes hand in
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  Speaker 2: hand with liberalization of our foreign direct investment rules, because
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  Speaker 2: they are really complicated. We have made it extremely hard
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  Speaker 2: for international investors to navigate New Zealand. And so when
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  Speaker 2: they look at potentially investing in New Zealand currently, they
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  Speaker 2: will find all these rules and regulations and in the
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  Speaker 2: end they will ask themselves, well, if it really worth it,
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  Speaker 2: should be really trying to jump through all of these
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  Speaker 2: hoops and jump over all of these hurdles, or should
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  Speaker 2: we rather take our money elsewhere? And often the case
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  Speaker 2: is that they said, well, it's really not worth it.
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  Speaker 2: It's a small market, it's a small country. New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: is not a must have in our portfolio, it's a
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  Speaker 2: nice to have, And so we write they we're somewhere else,
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  Speaker 2: and if we change the rules if you make it easier,
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  Speaker 2: if you make it more welcoming to be here and
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  Speaker 2: to be an investor in New Zealand, then they would
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  Speaker 2: consider a New Zealand more. And then if they also
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  Speaker 2: encounter the invest New Zealand agency which takes them by
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  Speaker 2: the hand, guides them through the system and tells them
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  Speaker 2: really how New Zealand works, how the country takes them,
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  Speaker 2: really makes that lending in New Zealand a little bit easier,
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  Speaker 2: then I think we have a good chance to get
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  Speaker 2: way more international investment than we currently have.
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  Speaker 1: Oliver, how long do you think it will take to
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  Speaker 1: make those changes to the rules of legislature.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, the legislative changes are easy. You could basically do
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  Speaker 2: them almost overnight. But you have to create an agency,
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  Speaker 2: and you have to create an agency with a right mindset.
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  Speaker 2: We have New Zealand Trade and Investor of course right now,
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  Speaker 2: and that is part of their role also right now
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  Speaker 2: to attract international investors. But the mindset so far has
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  Speaker 2: been to are always be a bit careful, really emphasize
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  Speaker 2: the risks and really make sure that we are getting
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  Speaker 2: the right kind of investors. We have to turn them
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  Speaker 2: one set into something that really wants investors. I mean
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  Speaker 2: that's what Ireland's done. Ireland at one stage decided they
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  Speaker 2: no longer wanted to be the poor house of Europe,
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  Speaker 2: and then they had this mindset to really get cracking
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  Speaker 2: and really change things and attract investors. And we have
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  Speaker 2: to do exactly the same.
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  Speaker 1: So, Oliver, how soon do you expect it to start
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  Speaker 1: drawing in more overseas investment.
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  Speaker 2: I hope within the next month. I mean, the signal
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  Speaker 2: that I'm just sending out is positive. The signals for
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  Speaker 2: the world is we are open for business, we want
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  Speaker 2: you here. And that's quite a change of mindset, and
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  Speaker 2: I think if we continued on that path, that change
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  Speaker 2: could happen quite quickly.
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  Speaker 1: And look, as you've been traveling to Singapore and Ireland, anything,
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  Speaker 1: did you pick up on anything we need to be
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  Speaker 1: aware of to you know that potentially you know might
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  Speaker 1: be wrong or we addressed sort of any issues that
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  Speaker 1: may arise.
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  Speaker 2: No. I think what we have to do is actually
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  Speaker 2: we just have to make the case. We have to
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  Speaker 2: explain that this is worthwhile. I can totally one experience
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  Speaker 2: we had in Ireland. We have hosted the Irish Economics
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  Speaker 2: Minister at the time and he told us that he
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  Speaker 2: could not travel to a single place in Ireland, and
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  Speaker 2: not even the smallest village without being asked by the locals, hey, minister,
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  Speaker 2: what can you do to get foreign investment into our area?
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  Speaker 2: And then we asked success, well would that happen in
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand And the answer was probably not because here
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  Speaker 2: we haven't actually learned to actually appreciate the benefits of
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  Speaker 2: foreign investment. We always think about them as risks. We
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  Speaker 2: think about them as becoming tenants in our own country,
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  Speaker 2: boards selling out about losing control. The Irish narrative was different.
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  Speaker 2: The Irish narrative was always what can this investment do
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  Speaker 2: for us? How many jobs can it create? How much
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  Speaker 2: opportunity do we get out of it? How much growth
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  Speaker 2: do we create out of this? So it was a
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  Speaker 2: growth mindset and that's what the Primus had talked about yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: He said we should actually think about what can it
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  Speaker 2: do to make the economy grow? What can it do
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  Speaker 2: to make New Zealand a better place? And that should
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  Speaker 2: be our mindset rather than thinking what are they any
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  Speaker 2: potential risks?
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  Speaker 1: Oliver, thank you so much for your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Nice to talk to you, Oliver. Heart which is the
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  Speaker 1: executive director for the New Zealand Initiative. For more from
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to news talks.
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