Welcome to 2013 – let’s hope we get a bounce back in global demand and see good growth in our export businesses.
At the end of last year I was in Denmark for some meetings focusing on competitiveness and building companies of scale. The Confederation of Danish Industry has produced a report since 2005 that compares the OECD countries competitiveness over a range of benchmarks. While NZ compares pretty well at number 11 overall, there is plenty of room for improvement. One area where we have gone backwards compared to other countries is on our costs and taxes.
We have gone from number 5 to number 24 between 2005-2012, which means our cost of doing business has increased relative to our OECD competitors. We should have a hard look at fixing this as it is within the Government’s direct control and we need to be enhancing our competitiveness, not slipping so far behind in such a short timeframe. A tough call when the Government is trying to get back into surplus, but this should be high on the policy agenda (rather than new spending promises) once we get back into the black.
Catherine Beard
027 463 3212 or cbeard@exportnz.org.nz