Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce says making New Zealand go faster would require a “geographical play” and being prepared as a country to welcome investment and infrastructure:
The “good news” was rapid growth in Asia and the investment opportunities it created.
Mr Joyce said three markets – North America, Europe and Asia – all had about half a billion people in the “middle income” bracket.
“The difference [between] these three … the Asian market is growing rapidly. Within 10 years it will have 1.5 billion people in the middle income bracket. By 2030 it will have 3 billion.”
The others would be static.
”They [the Asian market] are going to want to buy good quality food and secure future supply. [Secure] education services for their kids, agritechnology, high-value manufacturing services and ICT products and hopefully, for the first time since I think this country was settled … we are in the exact right place.”
We can’t afford to ignore our traditional markets in Europe and the USA but the opportunities for export growth are in Asia.
When people’s incomes increase, as those in Asia are, their demand for protein increases too and we are ideally placed to supply them with more milk and meat.
