19 August 2010

NEW RELEASE

Discussion paper released today

Conclusions from our strategic review of New Zealand’s economy are contained in our publication 'A goal is not a strategy: Focusing efforts to improve New Zealand's prosperity' [Scoop copy: A_goal_is_not_a_strategy__Full_report.pdf]. Establishing bold goals such as 'matching Australia’s GDP per capita by 2025' helps focus attention on what is important, but achieving bold goals requires well-directed and strong actions. New Zealand lacks an agreed economic strategy to deliver such actions.

The discussion paper concludes that New Zealand needs to focus on the internationalisation of high value, differentiated export sectors, prioritise labour productivity improvement efforts on these sectors, and reallocate resources from low to high productivity sectors.

Click here to read this report, as well as a summary, media release, and various links.

Internationalisation project

Following the release of 'Standing on the shoulders of science' we commenced a project to ensure sufficient supply of talent and capital to the innovation ecosystem. That project has three stages: identify the gaps, develop policy proposals to ensure supply, and ensure policies are adopted.

'A goal is not a strategy' concludes that exporting firms need a lot more help to overcome the size and distance barrier that makes it so difficult to internationalise. We have identified many potential policies that will increase the supply of talent and capital to help firms internationalise more successfully. Currently we are testing the policy proposals against international experience and with local experts. Our intention is to publish the conclusions of this effort in a discussion paper that will propose specific policies to increase the success of internationalisation efforts, and overcome that obstacle to lifting prosperity.

The New Zealand Institute Council and our future

As the current programme of work on innovation and internationalisation to lift prosperity nears its end, the Institute’s attention will turn to other issues. NZahead, our assessment of New Zealand’s performance on 16 high level measures helped us all to understand how the country is performing and highlighted many areas of weakness and of opportunity.

The New Zealand Institute Council is being established to provide a forum to more systematically assess the issues New Zealand faces and to guide the Institute’s work programme. The Council will include members and trustees of the Institute who are willing to commit to attending two Council meetings each year. The initial Council meeting will be in October and will focus on agreeing the most important issues the country faces so the Institute and others can direct efforts to what will really make a difference to our collective future.

Support the New Zealand Institute

We are a small organisation trying to do a big job and we need your help.

The founding funders have done an amazing job in getting the Institute up and running, and they continue to support the Institute. Now that the concept of the Institute has been proven to work, it is time for other passionate New Zealanders to help too. With more resources we can cover more subject areas and have more impact.

You can help by becoming a member of the Institute or by donating to the Institute to support our work. There is more information about why you should support us.

I hope that you find the discussion paper interesting and informative.

Dr Rick Boven

Director

Also available on the Institute's web site is public commentary by the Institute on a range of issues, as well as media coverage of our work.

View New Zealand’s social, economic, and environmental report card: www.nzahead.org

You can also keep up-to-date via the Institute's Facebook page.

ends

© Scoop Media