NZ could benefit from Asian role models

MEDIA RELEASE

Tuesday, 21 August 2007

NZ could benefit from Asian role models

If New Zealand is to return into the top half of OECD nations, it needs to make wealth creation the top strategic priority in the way some Asian nations have done, says a new Asia:NZ report.

New Zealand Capability: Lessons from Asia is an Asia New Zealand Foundation Outlook report by Dr Lance Beath of the Strategic Studies Programme at Victoria University that focuses on Singapore and Malaysia.

In the report Dr Beath says New Zealand needs to consider whether it is sufficiently transformative and ambitious for the future.

He says it is important to consider where the country wants to be and how best to get there. This would be an important step in lifting New Zealand’s overall performance on the world stage.

Dr Beath says many Asian nations have formal long-range planning documents that encapsulate their visions and directions for the future.

For example, Malaysia has its Vision 2020 and Knowledge-based Master Plan while Singapore’s 2002 Life Sciences Plan is designed to ensure that by 2010 at least 15 world-class life sciences and biotechnology companies will have established regional headquarters in Singapore.

Dr Beath asks what is it that New Zealand can learn from developing Asian capability and ‘best practice’ in the area of long-range strategy formulation, taking Singapore and Malaysia as representative of other fast-growing Southeast Asian economies.

The report’s theme centres on the quality of government. High quality leadership is integral to improving strategic capability. Central to this is the quality of leadership offered by political leaders, public service executives and managers.

In looking at Singapore and Malaysia, the report advocates thinking further about New Zealand’s governing elites. The protected value of egalitarianism in New Zealand should be rethought. New Zealand has world class public sector leaders and it needs to begin celebrating their achievements.

Lance Beath is a consultant and university lecturer who specialises in defence, security, futures forecasting and long range strategic issues. He has 33 years experience in government at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Ministry of Defence, and five-years private sector consulting.

He served in New Zealand diplomatic posts in Jakarta, Washington, New York, Ottawa and the Cook Islands and as Director of the European and Australian Divisions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

He also managed the Strategic and International Policy Division of the Ministry of Defence where he was responsible for all aspects of the Closer Defence Relationship with Australia as well as New Zealand's defence relationships with the United States and other defence partners.

ENDS

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