A selection of readers' views

I am 22 and own a business in Auckland that employs 41 people. The major problem is that university students feel they cannot get an adequate job in New Zealand to pay off their loan quickly enough - well, that's what all my friends tell me. I tell them to get out there and make a job, but they reply that not everyone is like myself and wants to own a business. They want to work for a corporate or similar and earn a decent wage. Those jobs are few and far between.

We need to make New Zealand attractive to corporates. In reality they have no reason to stay here.

Give corporates money - or ways to make money - and they will be happy. If we can entice corporates to start up or base themselves in New Zealand, this will in turn create a large number of high-paying jobs. Everyone must be getting sick of hearing about Ireland this, Ireland that. But the truth is it really has done brilliantly. It has become a European powerhouse in under 10 years.

To get these corporates here we need to offer them everything that Ireland has done - tax breaks for research and development, low company tax rates - just give them basically whatever they want. You have to spend money to make money.

Another thing New Zealand should do to kick-start the local economy is keep interest rates at 7 per cent. This interest rate keeps the housing construction market going at full steam. If this market is going well, then that flows on into the economy. I know, because my business provides goods for new-house construction. This market directly and indirectly employs so many New Zealanders.

The unemployed should be made to work for the dole. If they are doing something for their money they are gathering working skills and keeping themselves occupied. The country would look that good that people couldn't help feeling good about themselves. Most people just would like to have something to do. If I had the choice of employing someone who had been unemployed for a year - where one person had done nothing and another had worked for the dole - I know whom I would rather have on my team.

The Government needs to stand up and lead the country, not cower like it has been doing. What it is doing is creating uncertainty, and uncertainty is not good for the economy.

Shane Bradley, Auckland

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There are many areas in which New Zealand cannot only succeed, but lead the way. Organic farming, adventure tourism, and alternative energy research spring to mind, but the major one is, I think, eco-tourism.

The New Zealand Great Walks aren't just great - they're the best I've seen in more than 40 countries. We could construct new overnight tracks in places such as the Kaimai Ranges, the Waitakeres, around Cape Reinga and perhaps more in the Ureweras.

The jobs would include track construction, hut construction, installation and design of solar heating/lighting units, provide new business opportunities for local backpacker lodges, restaurants and minibus companies. And these jobs would be in small towns such as Te Aroha, Paeroa and Waihi. The tracks would encourage tourists to stay longer and see more of New Zealand.

A $250,000 investment in a new Kaimai Track would pay for itself and provide dozens of short-term and long-term jobs. More importantly, it could help establish New Zealand as a leader in eco-tourism and eco-technology.

David Brown

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Herewith some fairly simple suggestions to your questions, in the order in which they were listed:

1. Encourage investments, be it internal or external, by reducing restrictive elements as much as possible. New Zealand has far too many rules on investments.

2. Education should be free right through university undergraduate level. The higher the overall education level of the population, the better.

3. Invite "them" in. Make it easier and "user friendly."

4. The exchange rate is really nothing more than a vote of confidence or no confidence by the money people. When they have confidence that New Zealand is on the right track they vote with their money.

5. High-tech. We are too small to ever be a world manufacturing economy but not too small to be a smart economy. Witness Singapore and Ireland.

6. Tax breaks for regional development. Where is the pain by giving a tax holiday to an investor if he invests in a particular region? We don't have that business anyway. In any event, the new business generates PAYE and ultimately GST.

7. Tax incentives (tax reductions, tax holidays, tax rebates, etc): When you grant tax incentives for new business in new areas you give away nothing because you didn't have it in the first place. Overall corporate tax rates should be lower than countries likely to attract the same investment, such as Australia. Again, have a look at world success stories for small countries - Hong Kong, Singapore and Ireland, to name a few.

8. Raise the gap between what you can collect for working versus what you can receive for not working.

9. New Zealand needs more educated people. Lower the requirements to let some of them in.

10. See No. 8. Pay those who want to work and get off social welfare some sort of incentive for doing so.

Darrell Huffman, Waimauku

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How do you ensure that people want to live in New Zealand? Make and maintain New Zealand as an attractive place to live.

Obviously New Zealand's average level of income is not one of the attractions, and, from memory, it has never been. New Zealand does not have the population, it is located far away from the main trading areas and it does not have precious resources. Its attractions are in other sectors closely related to its low population density and its beautiful landscapes.

This is not the place to go into detail about specific areas which do or should constitute the real pillars of the New Zealand economy. But whatever activity might be suggested or might be developed from the 10 questions has to be focused on these very areas (tourism, horticulture, silviculture, environmentally friendly developments, alternative medicines, etc.).

And New Zealand needs to open up to a more visionary approach to new developments and tap into a very important resource, which is widely neglected: immigrants.

Ask them your question, and listen and try to understand to their answer. You will be surprised how similar it will be to those of the thousands of Kiwis returning every year from their big OE.

It might be helpful to look at the long-term trend of Kiwis staying overseas for good. I doubt, however, that this figure is on the increase. I have been in this lovely country for 20 years, and never have I been asked by any organisation, as a potential or permanent immigrant, why I chose to live in New Zealand rather than in my native country.

Helge Gunzerodt, Pauanui

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I am a New Zealand nurse with 26 years' experience, latterly in clinical review, currently working overseas, in part because of personal circumstances, and also because it was difficult for me to find work outside Auckland.

I have an 18-year-old son graduating from high school in Hamilton and I am concerned about the lack of job opportunities he has there. His choices are to incur a student loan and hope that after four years he can graduate and maybe get a job, or just try and get a job as a school-leaver. Financially, he would be better off to come over here to the United States.

There should be policies in place to encourage employers to dissipate their operations outside of major centres. This is possible with the advent of electronics, and would avoid the need to pay exorbitant amounts for city business leases which add to the cost of doing business.

There should be more incentives to encourage employers to give out scholarships for school leavers, on the understanding that they work for that employer for a certain length of time. This would at least give experience, which is the catch-22 that so many graduates encounter.

New Zealand is also experiencing the same issues as occur here in the United States, that there are low-paying service jobs, and then highly paid jobs ... not a lot in the middle.

However, at least here, people can get those jobs. What hope do school leavers in New Zealand have currently? Not a lot.

Sue Bloom

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We are a property development company in the initial stages of preparing a consent application for a 650-lot residential waterways subdivision and 400-berth marina between One Tree Point and Marsden Bay near the entrance to Whangarei Harbour. This is the sort of initiative that should attract additional ideas and opportunities.

We are trying to plan for growth within and around the project, but it is difficult without a serious growth outlook in the economy. However, the development of the boatbuilding industry in Whangarei, with the recent announcement of a superyacht yard, is an excellent catalyst, and a new modern marina base will complement the growth of this industry sector.

We have had many inquiries from the usual businesses that are attracted to marinas, such as restaurants, brokerage and boat storage, and are following up leads overseas for opportunities with call centres, for example.

We also hope that the critical mass of our project will be extended by others taking a punt on other types of business, for example in tourism and industry, but it is obvious that the success of such a large development will depend on a sense of optimism in New Zealand.

We wholeheartedly support the Herald's initiative to switch the debate to a more sensible level. The interview between John Campbell and Brian Gaynor on the National Programme last Saturday was an excellent example of informed discussion and reasoning and ideally could be enlarged upon by the press.

Phil Rhodes, Project manager

Herald Online feature: The jobs challenge

We invite your responses to a series of questions such as: what key policies would make it easier for unemployed people to move into and generate jobs?