It's 'a great place to invest'

By Graeme Kennedy

Friday 20th December 2002

Industry New Zealand is using its hi-tech $1 million Viaduct Harbour pavilion to market local investment opportunities to wealthy superyacht owners and other influential corporate visitors to the America's Cup.

The showcase of New Zealand innovation and entrepreneurship includes more than 80 multimedia exhibits of local businessmen and women who beat the odds to build their small enterprises into highly successful and internationally known companies.

Industry NZ northern general manager Lance Wickman said the pavilion experience would introduce overseas visitors to another, lesser-known side of New Zealand life: "We will show them that beyond the clean, green image we are a nation of innovative business people," he said.

"We will tell them that New Zealand is not only a great place to visit and live but also a great place to invest.

"We have a lot of talent here and a willingness to start new businesses but the difficulty is scaling up to have a go offshore sooner than the competition does and without the capital or investment to do it properly. That is very hard.

"Industry NZ helps them attract the capital to be investment-ready and have the confidence and skills to look for good partners so they can take the big step and go offshore."

Mr Wickman said the pavilion, whose major sponsor is Carter Holt Harvey, would attract the corporate Cup visitors and be used outside public hours for business functions such as product launches and networking.

An investment symposium to be held around the time of the Millennium Cup yacht race to Kawau Island in February was one of several investment-oriented events planned during the Cup regatta.

"Investment NZ's prime task is to stimulate economic growth and most in the future will come from innovation and entrepreneurship," Mr Wickman said. "We are hoping all this activity around the America's Cup will lead to significant overseas investment for local business.

"Our economy is based on the primary sector, which is subject to commodity pricing and market swings, so we must develop products less susceptible to price variation higher-value products from businesses that don't even exist yet but which will as we encourage the entrepreneurs and transform the economy from traditional to value-added."

Mr Wickman said New Zealand had many examples of such enterprises, most of which were displayed at the pavilion and included Raycon, which makes 50% of the crystal oscillators in the world's GPS systems, Orca wetsuits and audio company Slab Technology.

The superyacht industry he was a classic case of New Zealanders taking the lead position in a niche sector "and there are plenty of other opportunities to do that," he said.

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