NZ must work harder on trustworthiness, says Chamber

Wellington Chamber of Commerce

Media Statement
Thursday 28th January 2016
NZ must work harder on trustworthiness, says Chamber

New Zealand’s slide down the world anti-corruption ladder is disappointing, considering the great store we put in our clean reputation, says Wellington Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive John Milford.

He was commenting on the latest Corruption Perceptions Index which shows New Zealand has slipped from being top for seven years in a row up to 2013, to second in 2014 and fourth last year.

“New Zealand places a very high priority on its reputation, and business in particular uses our ranking on the list of least corrupt countries as a marketing tool when doing business overseas, so it’s disappointing to see this fall.

“Business is built on trust, and any degrading of that can have a serious impact on our success.

“Businesses recognise the importance to their customers of being known for doing fair and clean deals, and all companies – from the biggest to the smallest – should be constantly striving to maintain that.

“It’s been a big advantage for us to be able to point to our reputation, and we must work hard to get New Zealand back to the top.

“It’s great that we remain the least corrupt country in the Asia Pacific region, and that we rate much higher than our main competitor, Australia, but we must not get complacent. Markets, particularly those in Asia, are becoming more discerning over who they deal with, so we must worker harder.

“Trustworthiness means a great deal on the global stage, particularly to a country like ours that is so reliant on trade.”

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