Strange JamieEconomic and Regional DevelopmentJAMIE STRANGE (Chairperson of the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee): Madam Chair thank you for the opportunity to take a call in this debate as the chair of the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee. I'll give a brief overview of what we heard from the Minister in the committee and then I've got three questions to pose to the Minister. First of all for the benefit of the committee previously responsibility for economic development and regional economic development were in separate portfolios. However those portfolios have been combined into one portfolio for 2021-22. The funding in this Budget we heard supports economic development and the growth of international business and leads to procurement reform and public sector property management. The main appropriations we heard from the Minister were $696 million for the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to fund activities administered by Kānoa which is the regional economic development and investment unit including money for the Provincial Growth Fund infrastructure projects strategic partnership and other areas. Also there's money in the Budget for MBIE to provide policy advice and other services. There's $262 million for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE)—and I'd like to just acknowledge the excellent work that NZTE do in terms of promoting New Zealand businesses on the international stage—and also $187 million for the New Zealand Screen Production Grant which I will talk about a little bit more soon. The New Zealand Screen Production Grant encourages film businesses to invest in New Zealand. We are seeing a lot of interest in New Zealand from overseas film companies and I think some of the key reasons we're seeing that is because we have a rule of law we've had an excellent COVID response and the film companies—like Amazon for example—are particularly interested in what's happening here in New Zealand and they're interested in investing. We've seen The Lord of the Rings filmed here previously to great success and further Lord of the Rings work is being done at the moment. Some international productions can qualify for an additional 5 percent rebate which is what we heard from the Minister and to be eligible they must reach certain levels of production-related spending in New Zealand pass the significant economic benefits test and provide value to New Zealand that meets or exceeds the size of a 5 percent uplift. So we heard about that policy which I think was particularly interesting as we diversify our economy and move into this high-growth area in terms of film. I have three questions for the Minister. The first one is: we heard in the Estimates hearings about the importance of building digital capability to support small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Now as we move into more of a digital age it's becoming very difficult for SMEs to compete with other SMEs if they don't have a strong digital capability. The Minister just touched on this a little bit in the hearing but I'd like him to please elaborate on specifically what the Government is doing to help small businesses in this area of becoming digitally enabled. The second thing we heard in the Estimates was around the importance of Government streamlining procurement processes for companies around New Zealand. So I'm interested in how the Budget is improving a business's ability to bid for Government contracts during procurement processes and how these improvements will help Māori and Pacific businesses in particular. The third question I'd like the Minister to please touch on is the aspect around industry transformation plans. So the Minister touched on that briefly in the hearings but I'd like him to please elaborate on what this will mean for industries—first of all specifically why the Minister has undertaken this work on these industry transformation plans and what it will mean for industries particularly like manufacturing for example. So I'm interested in how the Minister will implement these to support New Zealand's economic recovery from COVID. Thank you.