Brownlee Looks For Export Improvement
March 26th, 2009
When it was in Opposition National was critical of the previous Govt’s failure to lift NZ’s export performance (export volumes have barely increased over the last 10 to 15 years). It promised to look hard at the $300m a year channelled into NZ Trade & Enterprise to see whether export promotion is achieving its aims. Now Economic Development Minister Gerry Brownlee is ending the open-ended market development grant scheme, where firms could get a dollar-for-dollar subsidy for capability building and development of new offshore markets.
Brownlee says the Govt will honour commitments already entered into and the scheme, costing around $30m a year, will gradually tail off over the next two years. He wants NZTE to work more intensively with the 200 or so firms which are regarded as export-ready in such areas as business management training, coaching and export education. Brownlee says the NZTE beach head programme where expatriate Kiwis are involved in advising would-be exporters is likely to be boosted. Those expatriates who are familiar with offshore markets can play a significant role interacting with NZ firms and helping them overcome obstacles in penetrating those markets.
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Duncan Cotterill