Cullen out to woo Aussie investors

Finance Minister Michael Cullen is trying to woo Australian investors with talk of a unified transtasman economy.

He told a business lunch in Melbourne yesterday that New Zealand had been a successful destination for Australian investment and remained a strong value proposition for Australian investors. And he said moves towards a single economic market should make New Zealand even more attractive for Australian investors.

"We can begin to look at a unified Australasian domestic economy, in which New Zealand features as the fourth largest state in terms of GDP, between Queensland and Western Australia."

Cullen said Australia was the largest foreign investor in New Zealand with investments of more than A$32 billion ($36 billion) representing over 40 per cent of foreign direct investment in New Zealand.

He acknowledged the New Zealand economy was slowing, but said the slowdown was unlikely to be as dire as some commentators were predicting.

Too much reliance was placed on negative confidence surveys.

"To illustrate this point, one needs only to consider that for the past five years business confidence has averaged a net minus 16 per cent, while the economy has averaged 3.7 per cent growth, well above economic performance in the nineties," Cullen said.

- NZPA