Businessman and philanthropist Sir Owen Glenn is promoting longer-term planning approach to tackling New Zealand’s economic challenges.
Writing in the Weekend Herald in January Sir Owen identified bureaucracy and lack of leadership for stalling our economic growth. His solution is to gather group of skilled leaders from business and across the political divide focused on New Zealand’s economic revival and its governance to achieve that. He’s called the initiative NZ Inc.
He cited the example of Ireland’s gathering of people from all walks of life to strike common accord on their economic direction, stating that New Zealand should not wait until crisis point as was the case for Ireland.
Sir Owen said long term mandate and planning timeframe were needed, well beyond the three-year political cycle, and that would require bipartisan approach with political leaders working together. He invited those with the means, energy, ideas and determination to join him in ‘council’ of like-minded people to work on New Zealand’s economic revival.
He identified the industries we should focus on as: dairy; info-tech; biotech; sustainable energy; responsible mining; and niche manufacturing. And key actions we should take are: pay off debt; reduce fiscal waste; focus on exporting; invest in R&D; foster tertiary system which enables our brightest talents to engage with forward-thinking local industries. M
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