GIA adds voice to sector issues

By JIM EAGLES business editor

The Government's Growth and Innovation and Advisory Board is weighing into the debate about the state of New Zealand's infrastructure.

The board - which includes high-powered private enterprise membership - has commissioned research to see where businesses believe infrastructural problems are holding back economic development.

When the results are available, probably about the end of this month, they will form the basis of a submission to the Government.

Chairman Rick Christie said the Business-Government Forum, which the board organised in October, had identified infrastructure as a key area for economic growth.

As a follow-up to that, the board had held discussions with the Minister of Economic Development "and been reasonably influential in persuading them to get an infrastructure stocktake done as a first step towards identifying where the priorities might be".

The board had also held discussions with Energy Minister Pete Hodgson to specifically talk about issues in the energy sector.

As the next step, the board has commissioned Wellington-based economic consultancy Infometrics to research business attitudes to infrastructure.

It would, Christie said, cover everything from road and rail to telecommunications and energy.

"The reason we're doing this is that while the subject is very topical, any debate has largely been dependent on anecdotal information and we felt the need to put some factual pegs in the ground," he said.

"What we want to know is exactly how the private sector perceives the state of infrastructure, what they see as the priorities, the impact on economic growth and what they see as their role."

The survey's findings would be analysed by the board before being passed on to the Government "as valuable information for future policy development".

Taking up the cudgels on behalf of business over infrastructure is one of several initiatives taken by the board after spending its first year doing what Christie describes as "background work": sorting out priorities, establishing links with Government agencies and getting up to speed with existing programmes.

"This year," he said, "is much more down to the nitty gritty."

The board has decided to focus its efforts on six key areas of which infrastructure is one. The others are:

pf* Growth culture - The board is seeking to quantify public attitudes to growth as a first step in developing a strategy to "deepen public understanding ... of the importance of growth and innovation to New Zealanders' prospects for wealth and well-being".

pf* Research and innovation - It is looking at what might be done to encourage more effective commercialisation of research, increase private sector investment in research and development and promote joint research-business ventures.

pf* People and skills - The board has held discussions with the Ministry of Education to look at how to improve levels of literacy and numeracy in the workforce and have more enterprise education in schools. It is also studying how to better match skill needs and immigration policies.

pf* Global connectedness - Because of the crucial importance of improving relationships with Australia, board members are initially concentrating on developing transtasman business-to-business linkages.

pf* Key sectors - The board has identified agribusiness, manufacturing and Maori as sectors which, along with information technology, creative industries and biotechnology which were named in the Government's growth and innovation framework, should receive special attention.

It has joined the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to commission research into "the growth drivers in agribusiness." Once that is completed it plans to hold meetings with agribusiness and forestry leaders to "hear their plans on how best to capture opportunities and remove barriers and how Government can best support sector-led transformation".

It has begun discussions with the manufacturing sector to "look at what support is needed to enable manufacturing to increase its growth prospects".

It is also starting a consultation process with Maori about "what are their business aspirations, what they see as the drivers and how we can assist . . ".


The GIA Board

The Growth and Innovation Advisory Board was set up by the Government in May 2002 to provide independent advice on how to advance its growth and innovation policies.

It is chaired by former oil company executive Rick Christie who is now chief executive of investment company Rangatira.

Members include The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall, Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung, Fonterra chief executive Craig Norgate, University of Auckland vice-chancellor John Hood, Genesis Research founder Jim Watson, advertising executive and Creative NZ chairman Peter Biggs, economist Brian Easton and Council of Trade Unions secretary Paul Goulter.