Joyce on foreign investment
Great to see a Minister sticking up for foreign investment. The Herald reports:
Not enough New Zealanders appreciate the benefits of foreign investment and economic growth, says Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce.
The reaction of too many people was “you can’t do this, you can’t do that, you can’t do the other thing”, he said, with little thought to the impact it had on potential jobs.
“The same people tend to turn around and demand more jobs one minute and then declare that they don’t want to see any things over here happen.”
Exactly.
Mr Joyce said that if people wanted more job growth, they had to take a more positive attitude to investment in the New Zealand environment, especially given the mobility of people and the mobility of capital. …
Economic growth required the use of capital, resources, skilled labour, infrastructure, innovation and a market.
“So all those things have to be managed. It’s not a case of carte blanche but every time you say ‘I don’t want that’ that shuts off another opportunity.”
Too many people see foreign investment as bad, or at best a necessary evil.
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February 3rd, 2012 at 10:09 am
Good comment from Joyce and the last Paragraph in your second quote is comforting because whilst foreign investment has to be encouraged it is not all good either and we need a process to weed our the chaff and ratbags.
Unfortunately the nature of the press and television editors and producers is to report the sensational which in general terms is those specatcular fails we see through either criminal activity or abuse of the system in some way but they shy away from the success stories as they are simply not as interesting for the short attention span of those that now bother to read newspapers or watch television news.
February 3rd, 2012 at 10:11 am
There is a world of difference between foreign economic investment that helps create new industries and new jobs and simply selling off what we have already.
February 3rd, 2012 at 10:19 am
@ YesWeDid
And what if we sell our existing assets to free up capital for new ventures? If we are assuming that we receive investment for growth (rather than to pay for living beyond our means) then whether that investment buys up existing assets, freeing capital for Kiwis to start new businesses (or expand existing ones with greater prospects), then how is this any worse than a foreigner investing here to create a new business? The issue is that we should be saving more, to increase our own capital pool, rather than selling off assets due to a balance-of-payments issue (which isn’t linked to foreign investment rules).
February 3rd, 2012 at 11:23 am
Most countries like to brag about how much FDI they are receiving
February 3rd, 2012 at 11:31 am
The experience with MediaWorks where NZ assets are sold off, geared up to impossible levels resulting in no money for investing in growth a taxpayer loan and the IRD taking them to court for tax evasion (alongside a dozen overseas companies).
Yellow Pages, 42 Below, Rakon, Whitcoulls etc. its no surprise foriegn investment is not popular as there are not too many examples where aside from cash there have been many benefits for Kiwis.
February 3rd, 2012 at 11:36 am
“.. simply selling off what we have already.”
Except it’s not stuff “we” have is it.
February 3rd, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Those backing the sale of the Crafar farms to China allege those who are against this oppose all foreign investment.
Bullshit. The central point is the sale of our agricultural land to overseas investors.
Of course foreign investment is good when it brings new technology or new assets or new expertise. The Bluff aluminium smelter, our biggest industrial exporter, is a good case.
It would be helpful for Joyce’s taxpayer-funded, high-speed, to-every-household, internet network. This consumer project will not pay off until uses can be realised beyond piping in ever-more, ever-newer TV sitcoms for couch potatoes. It would be an ideal investment for foreign capitalists who can see and realise profitable uses.
Joyce could find these in China? Yeah, right.
February 3rd, 2012 at 12:26 pm
New Zealanders don’t possess a high level of economic literacy and don’t understand that growth is fueled by investment. New Zealands economy is simply not large enough to generate the exponential growth required to create jobs and wealth therefore we have to look to off shore partners willing to invest in our economy to create the critical mass that acts as the stimulus for growth.
Saving to create growth as intimated by redqueen is not the answer, the capital funds that Kiwisaver creates is insufficient to act as a stimulus.
In addition to attracting foreign investment, New Zealand has to be prepared to invest offshore and participate in the global economy. It’s a case of quid pro quo.
February 3rd, 2012 at 12:57 pm
More short sighted spin to diffuse the fact they are selling of productive land to countrys with bad habits.
February 3rd, 2012 at 6:37 pm
That’s right DPF, so listen to Joyce tonight on Checkpoint with hysterical Mary selling propaganda and Joyce letting it pass completely by without even noticing.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2509057/new-china-strategy-out-amid-land-sales-controversy.asx
What Joyce failed to do in this interview which a Liarbore Minister would have had at his fingertips, was to make the point you DPF made a week or so ago in that diagram you had showing foreign land sales during Nat’s first term vs those under Liarbore.
Now unless and until the Nats become as switched on to propaganda and its cues as Liarbore is, the Nats will lose the next election.
Joyce let angry Mary make a profound lefty point, as she is wont to do and Joyce could have easily leaped in and squashed it indeed turned it 180 into Mary’s red (figuratively and literally) face.
Instead he clearly failed even to perceive it. This is serious. The propaganda point Mary hysterically made was “what kind of percentage increase do you think we want to see over the next few years.”
That message sunk into the subconscious of tens of thousands of floating voters who voted National last time. If Joyce was Liarbore and steeped in propaganda as they are, he would never have missed that.
As I say, Joyce’s rejoinder should have been words that made the point your graph made DPF, and that would have made those voters more likely to vote National.
Over the course of this term this is going to happen time and time and time again and it all adds up.
And frankly, if you’ve made politics your profession and you haven’t bothered despite being paid to, to familiarise yourself with the rudiments of propaganda practice as I have in my spare time, then perhaps one needs to update oneself on that for you can’t do the job without it.
I’m particularly concerned about how Key is going to use his skills in propaganda in the House during Question Time with Peters around. That is going to be critical and unless Key shows me some skills I haven’t seen in him before, he’s going to get badly mauled and his defence, is mastering this skill.
February 3rd, 2012 at 11:58 pm
How much foreign investment makes us tenants in our own country?