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Speaker 1: All right, this sounds like a dry old story, but

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Speaker 1: it's not. The Government's proposing changes to procurement rules. This

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Speaker 1: is to make it easier for New Zealand businesses to

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Speaker 1: win government contracts. Currently, there are seventy one rules that

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Speaker 1: agencies have to follow when tendering contracts, and the government

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Speaker 1: wants to reduce it to forty seven. The Economic growth

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Speaker 1: of Minister Nichola Willis, who is on with Mike later tonight,

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Speaker 1: Later this morning, she says, the contracts are collectively worth

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Speaker 1: more than fifty billion dollars a year. We've got the

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Speaker 1: Wellington Chamber of Commerce CEO Simon Arcis with me this morning.

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Speaker 1: Go on into you assignment.

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Speaker 2: Good morning here, How are you good?

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Speaker 1: Oh, I'm fine. This is a good idea where those

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Speaker 1: rules a ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's really good for New Zealand business. And part

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Speaker 2: of the reason for that is because we now recognize

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Speaker 2: the extra contribution that New Zealand businesses make. For example,

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Speaker 2: they employ people that pay tax versus this is another

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Speaker 2: you know, international entity which might not.

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Speaker 1: This is true and this is why the cutting of

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Speaker 1: government spending on all sorts of kind track around the

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Speaker 1: place has actually had a ripple effect that's gone through

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Speaker 1: our entire economy because these people play tax in New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: So there we go. How big of a difference in

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Speaker 1: cutting red take will this make?

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Speaker 2: Look? It's a big change, and I think it's also

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Speaker 2: what we really getting from that is the theme. This

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Speaker 2: is what we want to see. You want to see

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Speaker 2: it easier to do these sorts of things. And I

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Speaker 2: don't think it overly advantages in New Zealand business in

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Speaker 2: any way. So it's actually very sensible move, a good idea, I.

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Speaker 1: Hope, well for things like you know, the living wage

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Speaker 1: cutting that and the evs and all that sort of thing.

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Speaker 1: What they've done is have introduced what's called an economic

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Speaker 1: benefit test to the regime, so everything has to be

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Speaker 1: looked at to see whether the bid is economically beneficial

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Speaker 1: to New Zealand. Should this have been happening with government

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Speaker 1: processes and procurement from the get go?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think it should, and I think in some

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Speaker 2: ways perhaps it was read in their times when decisions

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Speaker 2: were made, but it's really good to see it explicit,

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Speaker 2: and I agree with Andrew from the get go we

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Speaker 2: should have had these kind.

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Speaker 1: Of Okay, are the new Zealand businesses who want contract.

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Speaker 1: Is there a demand for it?

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Speaker 2: Very much so. And I'll tell you what. The other

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Speaker 2: thing that's quite exciting about it is that you end

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Speaker 2: up being able to perhaps a ward a contract to

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Speaker 2: a business that can scale up. So they say, you know,

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Speaker 2: we can do this. We're just going to have to,

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Speaker 2: you know, get a few few extra people and we'll

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Speaker 2: we'll make it work. And that's that's great if there

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Speaker 2: are opportunities like that created along the way, but it.

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Speaker 1: Could advantage New Zealand business right at the time when

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Speaker 1: we're trying to attract international investment. We've got a conference

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Speaker 1: coming up this week for instance. You know, if we're

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Speaker 1: advantaging New Zealand businesses, are we actually turning our back

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Speaker 1: on international opportunities.

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Speaker 2: I don't think so, because you'll find these sorts of

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Speaker 2: rules are quite explicit and lots of jurisdiction. They're not

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Speaker 2: They're not unusual at all. And when you think about,

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Speaker 2: you know, the way that some businesses employee you know,

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Speaker 2: almost whole communities and they are involved in philanthropic work

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Speaker 2: and other things you do you do need to, I think,

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Speaker 2: recognize the extra value giving you and why not why

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Speaker 2: not I keep New Zealand's using business a little bit

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Speaker 2: of a you know, consideration, very good stuff.

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Speaker 1: Simon Arkisan, I thank you for your time today. And

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Speaker 1: Simon is the Wellington Chamber of Commerce CEO.

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