Directors' Breakfast: Addressing NZ’s productivity, performance & trade in the global market

We kicked off 2020 Directors' Breakfast series exploring growth and productivity from the perspectives of Hon Paul Goldsmith, National Party Finance & Infrastructure spokesperson an Bernard Hickey, Journopreneur and senior contributing editor of interest.co.nz. 

A lot of ground was covered including Coronavirus, the political environment as we begin an election year and the factors impacting the New Zealand economy.

Hon Goldsmith spoke of a number of action that the National Party would undertake regarding small business, infrastructure and taxes. Long-term challenges that were clearly identified include slow-growth and the need for a coherent growth plan. He also spoke of the focus upon regulatory reduction, small business relief to help them survive in these economic turbulent times and a family package.

Infrastructure was of particular interest given Kirk Hope, Chief Executive of BusinessNZ and Brett O’Riley, Chief Executive of the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) focussed so much on this topic at the last BDO Directors Breakfast. Are the National Party keen on spending money on roads and rail and if so how they intend on funding that investment? A fantastic question to the panellists was why don’t the National Party and Labour get together and agree on a bipartisan approach to infrastructure over the next 10 years so no matter who the Party in office was business knew the strategic approach was going to be consistent?

For answers to these questions and other insights we invite you to view the video.