Foster-Bell Paul: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoster-Bell Paul: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 05 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3136. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]5.PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National) to the Minister of Science and Innovation: What is the Government doing to grow business-led research and development?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Science and Innovation): Recently the Prime Minister and I announced that as part of Budget 2015 the Government will invest an additional $80 million in research and development growth grants over 4 years to encourage more private sector research and development and grow New Zealand’s research and development ecosystem. Research and development growth grants are non-discretionary and meet 20 percent of the cost of an eligible firm’s research and development programme. To qualify they must commit to spending at least $300000 and at least 1.5 percent of revenue a year on research and development conducted in New Zealand. The new funding is equivalent to a 14 percent increase in Callaghan Innovation’s total research and development grants budget and contributes to the almost $1.5 billion the Government will be spending and investing in science and innovation in the coming financial year.Paul Foster-Bell: How does investing more in business-led research and development further diversify the New Zealand economy?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Research and development growth grants are a crucial part of our efforts to boost levels of private sector research and development in New Zealand and lift innovation. A strong emphasis on research and development helps to diversify and strengthen the New Zealand economy and ensure our companies maintain competitiveness internationally. This is borne out by the range of industries investing more in research and development in New Zealand these days. The top two industries by value in 2013-14 were manufacturing with 54 percent and information and communications technology with 23 percent of the research and development growth grants funding. This compares favourably with countries where research and development tax credits are in place and where the research and development tends to simply match the profile of existing industries—for example in Australia where mining and financial services are apparently the most innovative industries.Paul Foster-Bell: What examples has he recently seen of New Zealand companies growing internationally through their investment in research and development?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Hundreds of New Zealand companies are now succeeding on the world stage through their research and development in many cases supported by Callaghan Innovation. For example just last week I was privileged to be in Latin America and officially open the new Sao Paulo offices for growth grant recipient Tait Communications which is succeeding very well in Latin America. [Interruption] I also visited research and development project grant recipient ADInstruments from Dunedin which is doing a great job producing data acquisition and analysis systems for the life sciences industry and is expanding its presence in South America. The success of these and other innovative Kiwi companies around the world is lifting New Zealand’s export revenue and growing jobs and incomes for Kiwis including for people from Dunedin Mr Clark.