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Speaker 1: So the government's announced an overhaul of the Overseas Investment Act.

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Speaker 1: It will make it easier for businesses to receive international

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Speaker 1: investment and for international investors to invest here. Business New

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Speaker 1: Zealand Director of Advocacy Catherine Beard joins us. Now, how

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Speaker 1: the Catherine, Good morning. What's your reaction.

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Speaker 2: Oh, look, this is a very good move. We've been

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Speaker 2: advocating for this a number of years now. New Zealand's

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Speaker 2: actually one of the hardest places to invest in the OECD,

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Speaker 2: and while the rest of the world has increased investment,

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Speaker 2: our investment line has flatlined. So very good move, very good.

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Speaker 1: It's fair to say that most New Zealanders would really

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Speaker 1: like to see some foreign capital invested in New Zealand businesses,

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Speaker 1: rather than just making it easier for foreign companies to

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Speaker 1: come in and therefore take our money overseas. I see

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Speaker 1: on the Telly last night they used Ikea as an example.

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Speaker 1: But Ikea has spent their money over the last six

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Speaker 1: years to come to New Zealand to then get the

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Speaker 1: profits and repatriate them. Of course, all we get is

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Speaker 1: a bit of employment. Isn't the real trick to keep

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Speaker 1: the profits here? To get foreigners to invest in New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look absolutely, and if I think about all our

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Speaker 2: big successful exporting businesses, most of them will have foreign investment.

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Speaker 2: And they don't just bring the money, they bring the

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Speaker 2: connections to international markets. So a lot of our exporters

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Speaker 2: who really smash it out there on the world market

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Speaker 2: have foreign investment. Without it, you're just really not that

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Speaker 2: competitive because you can't get big enough. And I would

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Speaker 2: argue that the jobs they create, those frontier firms that

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Speaker 2: are all high paid jobs, you know, those people are

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Speaker 2: paying tax. The business pays tax it grows, so you know,

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Speaker 2: there's always trade offs, but certainly for the rest of

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Speaker 2: the world, it's been a winning move and New Zealand's

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Speaker 2: sort of been sitting on the sideline.

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Speaker 1: Well yeah, the opponents say the trade off is that

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Speaker 1: you every now and then you lose key assets. But

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Speaker 1: of course David Seman was saying that there will be

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Speaker 1: a The Minister can still say no if he feels

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Speaker 1: it's bad for business. Is that right, It's correct.

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Speaker 2: So they've actually they are exempting a few things, so

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Speaker 2: they're putting farmland and residential and fishing quota more on

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Speaker 2: a slow track for decisions, So there will be protections there.

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Speaker 2: And you know when it comes to land, actually you

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Speaker 2: can't take the land with you. You can't put in a

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Speaker 2: suitcase and take it overseas. So if and if foreign

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Speaker 2: investor doesn't make a success of it, then they will

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Speaker 2: have to sell to somebody else who can.

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Speaker 1: All right, have you done any studies or have you

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Speaker 1: seen any studies that has put a dollar value on

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Speaker 1: how much this might improve our economy?

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Speaker 2: Ah, look, that's a huge unknown. I think we just

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Speaker 2: need to get the welcome matt properly out there. Other

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Speaker 2: countries have and you know, we've just made it incredibly

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Speaker 2: hard and frustrating to invest here.

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Speaker 1: Catherine Beard, I thank you very much for your time

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Speaker 1: and your expertise, and have yourself a great morning.

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Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live

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Speaker 2: to News Talk said Be from five am weekdays, or

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