Fantastic to hear today's announcement by Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce. New Government procurement rules will make it easier for smaller New Zealand companies to tender for Government contracts - something we have been advocating for some time (see below).

Also, don't miss out on the ExportNZ international business conference Go Global - take advantage of the fantastic value early bird $99 special, open until 30 April. Programme & registration here.

Catherine Beard
027 463 3212 or cbeard@businessnz.org.nz

Moves by the Government to develop more user friendly procurement rules that will encourage greater local industry participation in government tenders is long overdue and very welcome. This is something BusinessNZ has been advocating for some time.

Government is a big part of the economy, and wider government spending is responsible for approaching 40% of GDP in New Zealand.  By making it easier for New Zealand firms to participate in government tenders somewhere in the supply chain, we will be building bigger and more internationally capable companies. More...

The proposal by the Labour and Green parties to re-nationalise the electricity market is a worry on a number of levels.  Apart from the problems of regulatory risk (private sector investments in New Zealand becoming a risky bet due to backwards regulatory change) back in the days of ECNZ, prices to consumers were partly lower due to cross subsidisation from the commercial and industrial sector power users.
Commercial and industrial power users were charged higher rates for electricity in order to keep the rates to consumers lower.  Once a competitive market was introduced, and the true cost of producing electricity was revealed, the costs fell more where they lay. Keep in mind that industrial and commercial users are committing to long term contracts, are a lower risk and more reliable load, while the consumer end of the market is a higher cost to service and more transient.
Add to these concerns the spectre of political and bureaucratic decision making about when and where the next new generation should be and we end up with costly oversupply or undersupply in the electricity market.

The month of March finished off a healthy quarter of growth for New Zealand’s manufacturing sector, according to the latest BNZ - BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI).

It's the first time since early 2011 that we've had consecutive monthly expansion across all main sub-indexes.  It was particularly pleasing to see employment show a second consecutive increase in activity after spending eight of the last previous nine months in decline. More...

Featuring world leading innovation company 3M & a look into the future world of 3D printing, this event is happening on 8 May at the University of Auckland.

It's a great opportunity for manufacturers to meet & network with some of NZ’s most innovative companies & individuals; all with a common goal of growing NZ’s manufactured exports using innovative materials & processes assisted by cooperative R&D. More...

New Zealand teams have won the Robotics World Championship for the 5th year running which is an awesome achievement. High-tech manufacturers in New Zealand need to get along-side these Colleges that are producing world beating students in Robotics so they can support their efforts and tap into the pipeline of talent. More...

The final was an alliance led by New Zealand vs an alliance led by New Zealand, and resulted in New Zealand's fifth win. More...

Did you know we have a directory of contract manufacturers listed on our website? Its aim is to allow businesses to find contract manufacturers who may be able to assist them with a particular project.

If you are interested in being listed in our directory, or would like to browse it, click here.

Since GST has been introduced, it has been much lauded but studies about how it is perceived by New Zealand businesses have been few and far between. Connie Lu, a PhD student at the University of Auckland, is running such a study.

What is your business's experience of GST in practice? This electronic survey takes 5 - 10 minutes.Take the survey here.

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