Latest / Best of Business / Todd McClay: Trade Minister on the Government's new agency designed to bring in overseas funding

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Todd McClay: Trade Minister on the Government's new agency designed to bring in overseas funding · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
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  Speaker 2: So the Prime Minister has laid out his vision to
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  Speaker 2: grow the economy because today was the day he presented
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  Speaker 2: his State of the Nation speech. He did it this
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  Speaker 2: afternoon at one o'clock. In the speech, he said a
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  Speaker 2: culture of saying no is holding us back, and he
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  Speaker 2: also announced that they're going to create a new government
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  Speaker 2: agency to attract foreign investment. So the Trade and Investment
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  Speaker 2: Minister is Tom McLean and McLay sorry and he joins
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  Speaker 2: us now Hella Todd, Hey, good afternoon. So the Taxpayer's
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  Speaker 2: Union said people don't invest in a country because a
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  Speaker 2: government agency tells them to.
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  Speaker 3: So what do you say to that, Well, they're right,
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  Speaker 3: but they certainly don't invest in a country when government
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  Speaker 3: agencies tell them not to. And I think that's very
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  Speaker 3: much been the case in New Zealand. It's harder to
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  Speaker 3: invest here than it should be. And if we take
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  Speaker 3: Singapore as an example, they had thirty one p percent
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  Speaker 3: increase in their foreign direct investment last year. We had
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  Speaker 3: about five percent. So they Ireland also doing something well
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  Speaker 3: that we're not. The agency that we have in New
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  Speaker 3: Zealander is modeled on there is, but it's going to
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  Speaker 3: be very, very different because the taxpayer union is right.
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  Speaker 3: If I was an investor, I wouldn't come and ask
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  Speaker 3: a government department to run my company for me. I
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  Speaker 3: would find the experts and know what they're doing. And
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  Speaker 3: part of the job chrys Luction's given me is to
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  Speaker 3: find those New Zealanders here and overseas that are already
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  Speaker 3: active and in investment and in doing deals, and to
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  Speaker 3: attract their talent so that we can get our fair
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  Speaker 3: share of foreigners money in New Zealand to grow the economy.
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  Speaker 2: Now, you are right, Ireland and Singapore have government backed
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  Speaker 2: investment to agencies. But the thing about those sovereignties is
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  Speaker 2: that they also have tax breaks for foreign corporates. So
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  Speaker 2: do we need to look at corporate tax rates to
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  Speaker 2: become more attractive.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we certainly need to make sure that our tax
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  Speaker 3: system is competitive, particularly to Australia, but that's not the
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  Speaker 3: only reason that they have investment in those parts of
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  Speaker 3: the world. They often make it a lot easier than
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  Speaker 3: we do. I remember many years ago meeting somebody from
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  Speaker 3: Malaysia that was looking to invest in a hotel in
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand. They chose Australia. In the end, it was
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  Speaker 3: a very big investment because when they turned up here
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  Speaker 3: and talking to a bit of the government, they were
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  Speaker 3: sent off to the Auckland Council to talk to some
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  Speaker 3: guy whose jobs to work through consents and they decided
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  Speaker 3: to take their capital elsewhere. So what we will be
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  Speaker 3: doing is finding some of the best people in New Zealand,
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  Speaker 3: some will be in government, many will not be, to
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  Speaker 3: join us and to put the welcome mat out to
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  Speaker 3: go and meet these people around the world and to
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  Speaker 3: put those deals together for them with New Zealand companies,
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  Speaker 3: to bring the investment here for new companies in infrastructure
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  Speaker 3: and so on.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 3: But I think the example of Ireland and Singapore is
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  Speaker 3: a very good one for us to model ourselves on
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  Speaker 3: and emulate because anything they've done on taxis side, they
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  Speaker 3: are much better than we are and they are wealthy,
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  Speaker 3: wealthier countries for that.
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  Speaker 2: So that's a note to corporate text breaks well.
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  Speaker 3: It's not one of the competences that invest New Zealand had.
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  Speaker 3: Our job will be to get people to come in
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  Speaker 3: and invest here. I was in a UA with the
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  Speaker 3: Prime Minister last week and we met with one of
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  Speaker 3: the solimal wealth funds and they said to us, we
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  Speaker 3: haven't invested in New zealing because we thought maybe you
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  Speaker 3: wouldn't want us to. You might look at other parts
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  Speaker 3: of the world. Look that are investing pretty significantly with
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  Speaker 3: their one point seven trillion dollars in renewable energy and
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  Speaker 3: bio energy, and we've got big opportunities there. They asked
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  Speaker 3: me if we issue new banking licenses here because they
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  Speaker 3: have gone in and set up domestic banks and other
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  Speaker 3: parts of the world, so that they were not sure
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  Speaker 3: that we would welcome their investment or we thought we
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  Speaker 3: were too small in itself, tells we were missing big opportunities.
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  Speaker 3: But you should We should judge the success of this
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  Speaker 3: new agency not on the number of reports that have done.
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  Speaker 3: I don't want reports on the number of deals that
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  Speaker 3: had done. The money that comes into New Zealand destrates
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  Speaker 3: jobs and grows economy.
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  Speaker 2: So will you be going out into the employment workforce
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  Speaker 2: and shoulder tapping people who actually have the skills to
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  Speaker 2: go out and sell New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, we will be having a look in New Zealand
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  Speaker 3: and New Zealanders around the world. I with Chris suckson
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  Speaker 3: Win we're overseas meet many of them. They've got really
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  Speaker 3: really good ideas. You know, it will be a mix.
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  Speaker 3: I think from New Zealand Trade Enterprise. We have a
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  Speaker 3: group there that does investment advice already they are good
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  Speaker 3: at what they do, but we want a single focus
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  Speaker 3: and we want the expertise and the experience of people
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  Speaker 3: who have put deals together. So we will be looking
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  Speaker 3: in New Zealand and around the world for the talent
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  Speaker 3: that we need. We have thirty eight percent a foreign
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  Speaker 3: director investment compared to GDP. The OECD average is fifty percent.
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  Speaker 3: We should aim for that and actually try and exceed it.
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  Speaker 3: It's going to take some time to work out the
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  Speaker 3: best ways to do this, but we're not going to
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  Speaker 3: take forever. We want the first deals rolling through the
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  Speaker 3: door this year.
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  Speaker 2: Good luck to you and I thank you. That is
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  Speaker 2: Tomic Clay Trade Minister.
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