Selwyn Pellett, business entrepreneur and member of the Productive Economy Council, tells Breakfast why the NZ dollar was the real reason behind whether the The Hobbit was going to be made in New Zealand. Watch the video here
In December 2007 when the Hobbit was announced we all celebrated quietly. We assumed it would be business as usual for Peter Jackson and New Zealand. Why wouldn’t Warners spend their US dollars here?
Perhaps we should have asked: why would they? There are only four reasons for large overseas corporates to invest in New Zealand.
1. Access to raw materials (land, water, minerals, food etc)
2. Access to low cost labour,
3. Access to unique intellectual property
4. Access to our tiny 4 million person market. read more »
“John Key has characterized Labour as having a “road-to-Stalin experience,” over its plan to restrict foreign ownership of assets. It’s another disappointing response from the Prime Minister, in what is becoming a track record of failure to enter debate on the economy. In cynically applying the ultimate in far-left labels to Labour’s shift in policy, Key is doing the country a disservice. This isn’t about ideologies of “left” and “right”, and it’s of greater significance than mere labels can convey. This is about finding policies that will allow our economy and thus our country to get back on track, and about accepting that the past two decades of policy have failed us dismally. Both Labour and National were compliant in creating the problem. It is important that both of them now become part of the solution,” says Productive Economy Council spokesman Selwyn Pellett. read more »
The Reserve Bank Governor has all but said there is zero reason to raise the OCR right now, but has gone and done it anyway. Perhaps in hindsight he believes that during the last inflation spiral we should have used the OCR lift earlier and gone hard. That soft approach inevitably killed our exports and now while many exporters are hanging on by their fingernails we start the process all over again. read more »
It seems Bryan Gould has found the missing link in productivity that Labour, and now National struggled to find.
The Productive Economy council welcomes Labour’s announced intention to create a monetary policy environment that better supports exporters.
With every political party angling for the populist vote, it’s highly encouraging to see Phil Goff today staking out a position that will provoke serious debate on how we grow the economy. Those businesses that design, make, employ and export real things will love this announcement, says Pellett, the spokesperson for the Productive Economy Council. read more »
Dr Bollard’s increase of the Official Cash Rate to 2.75 per cent is a blow to hard working New Zealanders – both home owners and exporters – who thought the worst was over. This latest move will put more money into the hands of foreign-owned banks and at this point in the economic recovery cycle is plain stupid, says Productive Economy Council spokesman Selwyn Pellett.
“New Zealanders need to demand a fairer system for controlling inflation than the OCR. The Chief Economist of the BNZ said today that all the interest payments received were passed on to savers. This is a misrepresentation of the facts, as the banks’ future profits will demonstrate. The banks lift prices (fees and interest rates) quickly, bring them down slowly and pocket the difference as incremental profit. We’re expected to shrug our shoulders accept it as if there is no alternative,” says Pellett. read more »
Today we have for the first time seen the sort of Policy leadership that might actually deliver the economic turnaround that could see us catch up with Australia, says the Productive Economy Council.
The policies announced today by Labour could see a New Zealand that generates its own savings pool to invest in its own companies, to create superior profits from the innovation in science and technology, and to earn superior margins for our exports and pay our employees superior salaries, says PEC spokesman Selwyn Pellett. read more »
Stephen Joyce needs to take a “whole of the economy view” of KiwiRail’s intended purchase of locomotives and rolling stock, says Selwyn Pellett the spokesperson for the Productive Economy Council.
“We are an ambitious nation and it would be nice if our political and economic decision making could catch up with that ambition. New Zealanders want to see our Kiwi SOE dollars spent here, building our own rail locomotives and rolling stock, creating jobs, new skills, tax revenue and export opportunities. Not protected industries but invested industries. This type of economic investment is very sticky and that is its appeal, says Pellett.