By Yoke Har Lee
Full tax write-offs for research and development expenditure and accelerated depreciation for investment in technology are being promised by Labour if it gets into power.
Labour leader Helen Clark said the moves would be part of her Government's moves to facilitate business for knowledge-based companies.
The Labour Party would also develop a new economic assistance fund to support local and regional governments developing economic growth strategies as well as local clusters of industries, she said while visiting the New Zealand Trade Centre, a privately run trade display centre for manufacturers.
"Existing programmes like Technology for Business Growth run by Technology New Zealand will be promoted and expanded so that our companies can become greater earners of wealth for the country and larger employers of skilled labour," said the Labour leader.
A Labour Government also saw a role in addressing market failures by providing financing for small and medium sized business - but Helen Clark did not elaborate further.
Her Government would set up a new foreign direct investment division in the New Zealand Trade Development Board to promote foreign direct investments, she said.
She later told guests at the function that she personally did not feel good about planning to raise taxes but that money was needed to fund the sort of programmes Labour envisaged for economic development.
Labour promise relief for R&D
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