National manufacturing strategy top of the agenda

All manufacturing industries, rather than just the "sexy" ones, need to be taken into account in a national strategy, says the Employers and Manufacturers Association.

Bruce Goldsworthy, the association's manufacturing services manager, said the importance of the agriculture, timber, food and beverage industries should not be lost sight of in favour of those tagged "design-led" and "innovative".

In recent years, the Government has given priority to biotechnology, IT and the creative arts for funding.

But Goldsworthy said export figures showed the "big dollars" came from long-established manufacturers.

"We are anxious to ensure any strategy takes into account all manufacturing activity, rather than some of the so-called sexy bits ... "

About 80 people are expected to attend a one-day workshop in Auckland today to discuss a national strategy for manufacturing.

They will include listed manufacturers through to smaller companies, Government representatives and industry groups.

Organisers - the Manufacturing Vision Group - hope the workshop will give greater voice to a sector often treated as a poor cousin.

It will seek feedback on a draft strategy at the meeting and will follow it up with regional workshops throughout the country next year.

Group chairman Michael Pratt hoped the day would produce a vision for the future, strategies to meet global challenges and a research-and-development agenda.

Pratt, dean of the Waikato University Management School, said the workshop was an affirmation of the significance and importance of the manufacturing sector, which employed 26 per cent of the workforce and produced nearly $20 billion, or 15 per cent, of GDP.

Goldsworthy said the sector was critical and a strategy was important.

"If you don't have a manufacturing sector, New Zealand could almost be like a Fiji. It would have some agriculture products and tourism, and that goes up and down, largely with the weather in both instances."

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise group general manager Neil Maxwell said the sector was transforming more rapidly than ever, as manufacturing had spread across the globe and competition had intensified with the emergence of mass-manufacturing developing nations, such as China.

In this environment, he believed New Zealand's opportunity lay in making niche products with specialised service and short-run, fast turnaround production times.