Latest / The SME Stream / 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 · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I reckon, we need to get over ourselves here in
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: New Zealand when it comes to foreign investment, and it
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: looks like we're going to have to get over ourselves,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: whether we want to or not. Worth the government's plan
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to make it easier for foreign investors to buy New
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Zealand companies and properties. Now, the way I describe it
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: is that at the moment, the government thinks we treat
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: overseas investors as if they're going through customs, you know,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: all suspicious and what the hell are you doing here?
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: All suspicious about their motivations for coming here, Whereas the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: government thinks we should be more like the duty free
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: shop putting down the welcome map selling New Zealand to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: overseas investors, you know, give them, what's another word putting.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I give them a bit more of the glad eye
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and less of the raised eyebrow. And I'm all for that.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I'm all for it because modern New Zealand was built
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: on overseas investment, was built on overseas investment. I'm not
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: saying it's been perfect, but I agree with the government's
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: plan to open the doors more to foreign investors because
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the alternative is to keep languishing, you know, blindly pressing
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: on under our own steam, convincing ourselves that we're a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: country that can do without foreign money. And anyone who
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: thinks that is dreaming. So we had two announcements about
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: this at the weekend. The first came on Saturday, when
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: an associate of Finance Minister David Seymour announced that the
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Coalition government had agreed to change the laws around foreign investment,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: saying that the way we're doing it at the moment
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: makes us the worst in the world. Oh really, yep.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Out of thirty eight countries, we come last in terms
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: of being open to investment from overseas. And he says
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the government wants to reverse the idea that you know
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: that investors need to convince the government why they should
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: be allowed to invest here, and changing it to us
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: telling them why they should be coming more encouragement, less policing,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: or less of the customs officer approach. You might have
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: heard Oliver hat Which he's a foreign investment expert with
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the New Zealand Initiative think tank. He was on with
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Mike this morning and he was saying that he thinks
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: we shouldn't just be making it easier for investors to
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: spend money on businesses here. He thinks we should be
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: going the whole hog. Have listen to this.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: We should actually say we make it easy for you
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: to come and invest in a business. And by the way,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: of course, we also make it easy for you to
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: buy a house. I would even go a step further.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I would say, and then we make it easy for
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: you to get visa for your staff, and we actually
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: roll out the red carpet to make it all happen
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: because it has to be a consistent package. If you
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: go to the most successful countries in the world when
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: it comes to foreign act investment, like Ireland, like Singapore,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: that's exactly what they do. There are dedicated agencies making
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: it as easy as possible for these international investors to come.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: So that's the New Zealand initiative, think tank guy saying
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: let the foreign let the foreigners buy the businesses, but
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: also I let them buy houses. And wouldn't you know it,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Winston Peters, who's always been anti foreigners buying houses here,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: he says he would be open to changing his position
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: if the right investor has came along. So after David
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Seymore announced on Saturday that the government plans to loosen
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the rules about for or around foreign investment. Winston Peter's
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: made his big announcement yesterday that New Zealand First wants
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to see a one hundred billion dollar future funds set
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: up to ensure we have the money for all the
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: big infrastructure projects that need doing. Money, of course, would
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: have to come from overseas, which is why he said
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: to Mike this morning that he might not be so
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: hard line on foreigners buying houses here if it means
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: getting the type of investment he wants.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: So he's going to come in with the lousy twenty
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: million I think we're not going to be cutting ice
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: for him. But if he's in with a whole or
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: she's in with a whole lot of money beyond that,
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: we'd consider it. Because you know, the first thing they're
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: going to do is spend about five or six million
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: on twenty five million dollar investment on our dreaming and
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: gone investment in the house and then one quarter gone
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: straight up.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's enough, Okay, all right, you're open that you
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: are open to the idea. But because here's my point.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: My point is that if you want to invest.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: In a as a center for the right investor, we'll
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: consider anything, you see.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: I thought it was a little there was a little
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: bit of weirdness about the two announcements. I thought it
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: was kind of weird that mister Peters said this morning
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: that he hadn't sent anything before David Seymour announced the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: changes to the foreign investment rules on Saturday. But nevertheless,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: that was the only bit of weirdness. Nevertheless, they seem
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: to be on the same page, and I'm with them
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: on this one. I'm with the government. I think we
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: have no choice but to make it easier for foreign
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: investors to buy in New Zealand companies and properties for
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the simple reason that we're a tiny outfit and we
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: are dreaming if we think we can do it all
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: on our own, and also because if we don't attract
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: these investors, they will go somewhere else, somewhere else that
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: doesn't put up as many barriers as we do.