Investors yet to come

The results of New Zealand's drive to attract foreign investors have been as modest as our spending.

The catches include NZ Yachts at Whangarei (120 jobs short-term, maybe 1000 long-term), Sovereign Yachts at Hobsonville (40 so far, 300 planned), an Ericsson-Synergy mobile-internet software joint venture in Wellington (32 so far, 150 long-term) and another Ericsson mobile-internet joint venture with US-based GeoVector Corporation in Auckland (up to 40 jobs).

The only one to receive a grant was Ericsson-Synergy, which got $850,000 from the science budget plus $750,000 from a $3 million "major investment fund" managed by Industry NZ.

The decision by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to put millions of dollars into sponsoring a respiratory research centre in Wellington might be added to the catch list, as it has had extensive talks with Industry NZ and cabinet ministers over possible investment.

Investment NZ also claim credit for attracting call centre business. Exxon-Mobil's Australasian call centre in Wellington (125 jobs) and a decision by pet care company American Herbals to sign up a local firm to run its worldwide call centre from Hawera (10 jobs now, 100 in five years). But these are more akin to export successes than investments.

Other potential investments which Investment NZ director Gary Langford listed a year ago have failed to eventuate.

Langford says two or three investors planning to visit New Zealand cancelled after September 11. But it's slowly getting back on track: "New Zealand has an enviable security reputation. We are perceived as a haven of security and stability," Langford says.

Prospects include:

* Several of the world's big medical companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, which are interested in tie-ups with NZ biotechnology start-ups, provided the Government help their business by relaxing the tight cost-control policies of its medicine-buying agency, Pharmac.

* Venture capitalists from Australia, Asia, the US and Israel who have expressed interest in partnerships with the Government's new Venture Investment Fund.

"We are going to be hellishly busy in the next three months - quite stretched with our resources," Mr Langford says.

From our print edition:

You can view this special report in PDF format using the free
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Note: This is an 8 megabyte file which could take up to 30min to load in your web browser using a 56k modem.