Dialogue: Selling Auckland overseas

The Innovation Harbour brand will market the region's youth, energy and location, writes patron STEPHEN TINDALL.

Innovation Harbour is a new branding proposition for the Auckland region. It will market the region overseas as a great place to do business and encourage firms to locate here.

This will mean new jobs, new skills, new buildings, more products and services sold, locally and overseas. Everyone in the region will benefit.

Auckland lags behind competitor cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and San Diego which are aggressively seeking to attract new business.

What has the Auckland region got to offer that would bring an overseas company here? The good news is a surprising amount. Competitive Auckland has been researching how we stack up, particularly in terms of costs.

New Zealand's labour rates are among the lowest in the developed world. Wages and salaries are 20-30 per cent lower than Australia's and typically 50 per cent less than in the United States for equivalently skilled employees.

This may be good for overseas employers, but for local workers the message is that by attracting more industry and overseas research and development we can increase the demand and wages for our skilled employees. This will help keep Kiwis at home rather than see them disappear overseas for greater opportunities.

New Zealand has no payroll or social security tax. The only levy on employers is from the Accident Compensation Corporation in the range of 0.35 per cent to 1.90 per cent.

Our industrial legislation is among the most flexible in the OECD countries and we have minimal industrial action.

Commercial rents are low by the standards of other Pacific Rim countries and our electricity low-cost by world standards.

The cost, availability and quality of communications here are on a par with most other developed countries.

Our legislation is business-friendly. A recent OECD report into the compliance costs on small to medium-sized firms showed New Zealand had the lowest costs per firm of the 11 countries surveyed and the third lowest cost per employee.

Having established that Auckland has competitive advantages, we need to sell these overseas.

Innovation Harbour has been chosen as the flagship because it highlights Auckland's two key assets: the innovative nature of our people and our pride in the beauty of the region's three harbours.

We acknowledge our national characteristics of resourcefulness, creativity, imagination and practicality - that can-do capacity which makes our young people so popular among European employers.

Innovation is also an important aspect of our business culture and success.

Auckland has some excellent examples of world-class, cutting-edge companies such as IT companies Winscribe, Software of Excellence and Orion Systems; marine companies such as Alloy Yachts; Navman, which produces world-class navigation systems; biotechnology companies such as Genesis Research and Development; Right Hemisphere, a Newmarket-based company creating 3D graphic production solutions; Tru-Test, an innovative company within the dairy industry - and many others.

We should be as proud of these businesses as we are of our innovative sports people such as Team New Zealand.

Residents of the region know we are supremely lucky in having the Waitemata, Manukau and Kaipara Harbours at our doorstep. These contribute to the lifestyle we all value and can also offer to overseas companies relocating here.

Having such a powerful new brand is an excellent start to get the region on track for more economic growth, but how will it be used?

Competitive Auckland is now putting together a fact pack of the region's advantages under the Innovation Harbour brand. A logo and image will be developed which will reflect the region's energy, youthfulness and Pacific location. This will be made widely available to local business organisations, councils, Trade NZ and Investment New Zealand.

An Innovation Harbour brochure and website will also be developed. Anyone searching the internet under Auckland economic development will see what the region has to offer businesses.

The Competitive Auckland team are also talking to local business groups and councils about Innovation Harbour, emphasising that this is for the economic benefit of all the residents in the Auckland region, not just those in Auckland City. And that it is not just about the water's edge: it is about the whole geographic region.

Innovation Harbour is an initiative that has been badly needed for many years. As patron, I am delighted at the work being done by Competitive Auckland.

I hope that, as a result of this and Competitive Auckland's association with the Auckland Regional Economic Growth Strategy, a new economic development organisation will be set up this year to drive the economic growth for the whole region. Thanks to the work already done on Innovation Harbour, this organisation will be able to hit the ground running.

The Auckland region will then be able to present itself with confidence, energy and imagination when the world looks our way during next year's America's Cup.

We must make the most of this magnificent opportunity. International visitors to the America's Cup will start arriving for the Challenger Series in October this year - that's only a short eight months away. There's no time to be lost.

* Stephen Tindall is founder of The Warehouse and patron of Innovation Harbour.

Part 2

Herald features

Catching the knowledge wave

Global Kiwis

Proud to be a Kiwi