Cullen announces funding for tech, creative industries

The Budget will provide increased funding for the promotion of foreign investment opportunities, Finance Minister Michael Cullen said today.

He told the Overseas Investment Commission next week's budget would allocate funding for the "biotechnology, information and communications technology and the creative industries."

He did not say how much money would be made available to them, just that the funding allocation was part of the Government's innovation strategy.

Dr Cullen provided statistics on the contribution to the New Zealand economy that recent foreign direct investment (FDI) had made, including a FDI rise from $300 million in 1981, to $3.75 billion in the five years between 1997 and 2001.

From $2.4 billion distributed in dividends from foreign investments in the year ended March 2001, $994 million was retained and reinvested in New Zealand.

He also said 18 per cent of New Zealand's full-time workforce relied on employment with companies that were at least 25 per cent foreign owned.

- NZPA

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