KEY POINTS:
Future expansion of the Government's Beachheads trade support scheme should depend on it meeting tight performance targets, a report says.
The Economic Development Ministry evaluation report says the $3 million a year Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) programme is providing valuable advice and networking services for local companies looking to bust into foreign markets.
But it also highlights several areas where it needs to improve.
There are six Beachhead offices - Britain, Singapore, Dubai, Tokyo and two in the United States - and NZTE and the Government want to expand the programme.
But the report says before that occurs several facets of the scheme should be changed or improved.
It recommends closing the offices in Singapore and Fort Lauderdale in the US. It also says a rent-reduction scheme for participant firms with poor take-up rates should be axed.
The resources from both should be put into redeveloped networking and advice services.
Other recommendations include:
* Setting firm targets which the programme can be evaluated against.
* Improving sometimes poor communication with firms and stakeholders.
* Improving networking between participant firms.
* Being more selective about which firms qualify to participate.
* Better streamlining between the Beachheads and other NZTE programmes to eliminate overlaps.
The report said Beachheads seemed to be successfully networking companies into foreign markets, but it was difficult to measure outcomes.
This was partly due to a short time-frame - the first Beachhead was only established in 2002 - and partly due to a lack of tight performance criteria and in-house evaluation.
It recommended another formal evaluation be conducted in 2009.
Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard said as a result of the evaluation the programme would focus on expanding the networking, information and advice services at Beachhead locations.
However, he said overall the evaluation showed the programme was giving companies valuable support.
"Opening up markets for New Zealand is a top government priority and the Beachheads programme is ideally placed to support that objective," Mallard said.
"Getting exporters offshore to understand the market and the competition and giving them the support when there, are some of the features which we are building into our strategy to help build a strong platform for the future."
He said officials were working on options to expand Beachhead services - especially offshore advisory boards - to coincide with Export Year 2007.
- NZPA
