Resources

New Zealand Export Credit (NZEC)

New Zealand Export Credit (NZEC) is a function within the Treasury providing Southland/Otago exporters or their key suppliers with financial guarantees and trade credit insurance when a bank or insurer is unable to do so. Our solutions can help you, the manufacturer or engineering firm to:- 

• Manage cashflow

• Protect Income

• Grow your business

  Key Take-Outs from Phil Quinn
  Southland

  • There are plenty of jobs available in Southland. There is just a difficulty in attracting skilled labour to Southland, noting how a limited pool of housing as well as healthcare services (i.e. doctors) were constraints.

  • Importance of vocational education that was relevant for Southland’s industry needs;

  • Importance of proactively working with high schools to educate and attract a future workforce. Feedback to the Minister was that the current funding metrics for high schools was the percentage of students with university entrance qualifications, and that those students that move into apprenticeships aren’t part of this ‘success metric’ and therefore schools / career counsellors don’t actively promote this.

  Dunedin

  • A key focus of this discussion was on improving productivity – and how Government can support businesses to finance new equipment and technologies that improve their productivity. Several of the businesses (FARRA, United Machinists) highlighted the productivity benefits for their company from receiving previous Provincial Growth Fund grants.

  • SOREC called for the Government to follow the approach Australian Government’s “Modern Manufacturing strategy”, with increased grants (preferably) or cheaper loans from the Government.

  • Minister Nash noted that he is not a proponent of grants and preferred the equity approach that Kanoa can take and/or the Business Growth Fund may achieve. Nash said he was also supportive of adjusting the tax laws re accelerated depreciation to recognise the “useful life” of the capital asset rather than its longer “economic life”. If this becomes an agreed Government policy, it will still take a minimum of 2 years to become law.

  • Paul from Kanoa noted how the current $200 million Regional Strategic Partnership Fund (RSPF) still has a lot of available funds, and for local businesses to explore whether this fund could be used for capital expenditure over the next 12 months.

  • How businesses don’t know what Government support is already available, and delivery of the services are fragmented. NZEC, NZTE and Kanoa acknowledged this but also provided examples of how manufacturers exporters have received staged support from each of the NZ Inc agencies.

  • Difficulty in attracting skilled labour and how businesses need to take their own innovative approaches

  • I noted how some believed the Government’s re-opening of the Hillside Workshops for Kiwirail’s railway wagon assembly and maintenance was not perceived as helpful for the local manufacturers. Due to none of the actual components or carriages being manufactured locally, instead just ‘kit-sets’. As Dunedin has such a small pool of skilled labour, there are fears this initiative will pull staff from other Dunedin businesses, because Kiwirail pay higher wages. In the short-term at least, it is only aggravating the labour shortage in the region.

  • The request for Dunedin to have its own NZ Immigration presence to support Immigration processes.

NZEC Flyer

Growing Global opportunities for Technology Companies

Te Pari Products

Scott Technology

Wine Technology

Innovative Dairy Systems

Callaghan Innovation - Industry 4.0

It was great to see so many people attend the summit, SOREC did an outstanding job of pulling it together in such a tight time frame. My key takeaway from the events was the labour shortage issue was the number one problem people wanted to solve. On reflection and knowing there is a global war to attract talent, my question to the attendees is: Are you doing enough to leverage automation and digital tools to become more productive?

We see that businesses are at different stages of their productivity and innovation journey, so have developed several products designed to accelerate the journey towards innovation. 

The "Industry 4.0 Network" aims to build awareness and understanding of what is possible with Industry 4.0 technologies by demonstrating simple and real-world examples to New Zealand manufacturers and our future workforce. It aims to support business owners and executives in understanding how investments in industry 4.0 technologies can drive productivity. You can find out more about the program here 

Callaghan Innovation also has programs targeted at the foundations of manufacturing such as Lean, digital lean to our more advanced products where leadership is looking to set the vision and strategy beyond productivity such as the Aronui industry 4.0 Navigator. You can find out more about our manufacturing-specific help here or contact our Industry 4.0 team at - industry4hub@callaghaninnovation.govt.nz 

Sean Doherty

Product Owner - Industry 4.0
Callaghan Innovation

HKānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit

HKānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit manages several funds, including the $18 million Queenstown Economic Transformation Resilience Fund, which seeks to diversify the Queenstown Lakes District economy, and the $200 million Regional Strategic Partnership Fund which is a national fund focused on assisting regional economic development projects (including those within firms).  Funding to companies for both funds is via debt or equity, while the Queenstown Fund can also offer underwrites.

Kānoa is interested in supporting the engineering and manufacturing sector in Otago and Southland and would like to hear from any companies that could expand or increase productivity with a Kānoa loan.

Contact Mark Patterson Mark.Patterson2@mbie.govt.nz 021 860 955 or Paul Swallow paul.swallow@mbie.govt.nz 021 576 597

NZTE

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) is the government agency charged with helping New Zealand businesses to grow internationally. We use our extensive knowledge and global networks to help exporters of all sizes make better decisions and connect to the right partners and investors. We connect international businesses and investors with high-value growth opportunities in New Zealand

By supporting New Zealand businesses, we boost New Zealand’s economy and reputation, and help to share what’s special about New Zealand with the rest of the world.

For more information about how we can help you, send us a message and we’ll be back in touch soon. Contact us | NZTE. You can also call us toll-free from New Zealand on 0800 555 888, or go to our website for more details NZTE helps New Zealand businesses grow in international markets

Damian O’Neill
Customer Manager
NZTE