Agri sector to lead economic recovery
OPINION: Over the past month, people up and down the country have been asking me what I think is in store for the Agri sector.
FOR THE most part, New Zealand's growth over the next year has already been set in train, and any stabilisation is the job of the Reserve Bank.
The Government's main role is to keep looking out over the next five years or so and put in place policies that will help the economy become more competitive and productive – through good times and through bad. Again, the European crisis offers some important lessons.
Here in New Zealand we have also lost competitiveness over time, particularly as a result of poor policy decisions in the 2000s. In other words, it has got harder than it would otherwise have been for our exporters to compete in overseas markets. And it has got harder than it would otherwise have been for New Zealand manufacturers to compete with imported goods made offshore.
As a result, the industries and sectors that compete internationally actually went into recession in late 2004 and shrank in size by almost 10% in five years.
That decline in competitiveness began to turn around during the past three years.
The Government's view has always been there is no magic bullet – no one 'big bang' reform that would turn the economy on its head.
What is required is a series of good policy decisions and reforms over an extended time, in 100 different areas, to enhance the competitiveness of New Zealand firms. So we have a busy economic reform agenda, following through things we started last term and on new things we announced during the election.
For example:
We're rolling out ultra-fast broadband and the Rural Broadband Initiative, to lift New Zealand's connectivity.
We're introducing a six-month limit for granting consent to medium-sized projects under the RMA, to reduce costs, uncertainties and delays.
We're negotiating free trade agreements with nine countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, including the United States, and separately with a number of other countries including India, Russia and Korea.
I have tasked Bill English and Steven Joyce – the two most senior economic ministers – with driving this economic action plan. I have told them I want to see this action plan regularly updated.
The first update will be in the middle of this year.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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