There's so much valuable 'stuff' (read factual data, analysis, and most importantly ways forward)in '
The New Zealand Institute's latest discussion paper, written by Rick Boven,Catherine Harland and Lillian Grace should be mandatory reading for……well everyone who isconcerned about our country's slow backward drift into despair and (comparative) poverty.
Part of the challenge of the document, subtitled 'An internationalisation strategy' is it is socomprehensive, any attempt to summarise it, is in itself an understatement.
However, (and in full knowledge it will be further mined for its gems), highlights, or bits ofthe document that hit sticK between the eyes were, in no particular order.
•While NZ puts a huge amount of effort into training and recruiting doctors, nurses, teachersand others whose skills are essential to economic and societal success, it is less systematic aboutsupporting training in the areas that have the most potential to lift prosperity. There areestablished supply strategies for many important occupations but not yet for internationalisingbusinesses.
•There has been no body responsible for providing oversight of the entire[innovation] ecosystem, identifying gaps and opportunities, prioritizing efforts and allocatingresources. Partly as a result, statistics and other systematic data on the performance of exportersof differentiated goods and services and on resource supply and demand are very limited. That is notthe case for other important export sectors in NZ. Systematic effort is required to identifyinformation needs and ensure that data is collected and disseminated.
•The opportunities for[internationalisation] improvement are available because innovation has not been managed as anecosystem and because there has been an assumption that strong institutions and market forces wouldbe enough to ensure economic success.
•If NZ can increase prosperity by developing aninnovation driven economy with growing high value differentiated exports, then it will attract moretalent and capital, establishing a virtuous cycle. The goal should be to make NZ a country peoplewant to live and work in.
•If the focus of Government, policy advisors, influencers andcommentators is on the obstacles to change, or on the fiscal costs of the [internationalisation]strategy, then it is likely that a few of the proposals will be cherry-picked or adopted in a weakform and not much change will result.
•If the focus is instead on the goal of liftingprosperity, and on investing to ensure that our innovation ecosystem gives our internationalisingbusinesses the best possible opportunities for success, then the obstacles will be overcome.Successful small countries intervene aggressively in ways that are not dissimilar to what isproposed here. They do not intervene in exactly the same way because each country has differentobstacles and opportunities.
The report also (refreshingly) comments that there might be better proposals to overcome theobstacles than the ones offered here. "But if any proposal offered here is not adopted, then eithera better proposal should be submitted or a compelling argument should be mounted that the diagnosisis incorrect. Innovation ecosystem performance is only as strong as the weakest link."
There are 14 proposed policy directions. Some of these will be discussed in later sticK's