Ross Jami-Lee: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoss Jami-Lee: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 14 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7198. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]4.JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) to the Minister for Economic Development: What is the Government doing to encourage investment and growth in the New Zealand economy?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development): This morning I released the updated chapter of the building investment work stream of the Government’s Business Growth Agenda. Attracting high-quality business investment into all parts of New Zealand is critical to strengthening our growth rate and lifting productivity and it is an essential ingredient for building an innovative and connected economy. The investment chapter has a range of projects to ensure that New Zealand has the right conditions to encourage more business investment and builds on recent work to ensure New Zealand has robust financial market regulation to support domestic capital growth and investor confidence. Although capital inputs into our tradable sectors have grown around 2.5 percent for the last couple of years we need to lift that to around 4 to 5 percent per year to achieve the level of export growth we are targeting in the Business Growth Agenda.Jami-Lee Ross: What work is under way to encourage more investment in New Zealand?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The building investment report sets out eight new projects alongside 23 that are currently under way and the 36 that have been completed since 2012. One of the Government’s priorities is of course to rebuild the Government’s balance sheet which we are achieving under the excellent fiscal stewardship of our Minister of Finance. We are working very hard to encourage more investment in all parts of New Zealand through the roll-out of the new Investment Attraction Strategy the details of which were announced today and regional investment profiles. We are increasing international linkages to encourage more foreign investment through agreements like the Korean free-trade agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.Jami-Lee Ross: What else is the Government doing to encourage more investment jobs and growth in the New Zealand economy?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Just last week alongside Amy Adams and Paul Goldsmith we released the building innovation Business Growth Agenda chapter outlining the Government’s strategy for developing New Zealand into a hub for high-value knowledge-intensive businesses. That included an ambitious new target of peak rural broadband speeds of at least 50 megabits per second by 2025 with 99 percent of New Zealanders able to access broadband at that speed with the remaining 1 percent able to access up to 10 megabits per second up from dial-up or non-existent speeds when we came into office. Last month Tim Groser and I released the building exports chapter of the Business Growth Agenda the Government’s strategy for strengthening trade relationships with all our key trading partners. Of course that one included as an initiative the Trans-Pacific Partnership which has now been signed. The building exports report positions this Government like other National and indeed Labour Governments before it as unashamedly supportive of free trade.David Seymour: Would it not be cheaper quicker and easier to simply stop chilling the confidence of foreign investment with arbitrary decisions at the end of the Overseas Investment Office process such as that applied to the Lochinver Station sale?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I think the member will find if he looks into it that he is incorrect.David Seymour: Supplementary question.Mr SPEAKER: No the member has had two supplementary questions this week.