Carter David: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Carter David: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:673;Page:19336] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Acting Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to follow that contribution from Maryan Street. First of all I say that New Zealand Trade and Enterprise is a complex beast; I fully agree with that. When I first got involved with the portfolio as the Acting Minister for Economic Development New Zealand Trade and Enterprise was described to me as being spread too far to be effective. The comment was that it was an inch deep and a mile wide. 
That tallies exactly with what the performance improvement framework review determined. That work—the PIF review as it is known—was done by Sue Suckling and Murray Horn. They identified that New Zealand Trade and Enterprise as an organisation did not seem to know its purpose. I am pleased to say that that has changed and it is changing very dramatically. 
I congratulate the new chief executive a man called Peter Chrisp. He came from the private sector. He has fully accepted the criticisms that were levelled in the performance improvement framework review at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and he has now restructured the senior management leadership team completely. It is already a far more focused organisation than it was even 6 months ago. 
This organisation needs to give a mechanism by which New Zealand companies can internationalise. We have good commodity traders and they need to take every opportunity to become more sophisticated. They need to seize every opportunity to add value to whatever they produce. Although the very foundation of our nation’s economy is still the primary sector we also have some very smart companies around the country that I get the opportunity to be introduced to. I would describe these companies as being knowledge intensive. 
I went quite recently to a company in Christchurch called Stickmen Studios. That company had about 50 young computer graduates working for it in Christchurch—it had only just moved to a new building because the previous building they were in had been destroyed by the earthquake—developing computer games and immediately exporting them straight from New Zealand and into the States. It is a very inventive company. 
There is the jetpack organisation in Christchurch which has been in  
Time  
magazine. It is another example of a business that New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has to work with and give it the opportunity to become better connected with international opportunities. That is essential if this economy is to grow and grow faster. 
When we look at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise now we see that it is far more focused than it was. It employs about 700 people and 60 percent of those are offshore. Miss Street spoke about the ability and enthusiasm of the people she had the opportunity to meet in cities like New York Shanghai etc. She has obviously spent a lot of time outside of New Zealand. She has had the opportunity now to see how dedicated those people are but unless they are well led from the chief executive down then we will not be getting the best value from the organisation or bang for bucks if you like. That is why I congratulate the new team at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. My impression is that they are substantially better led and focused than they ever have been. We have developed with them an intervention logic the very reason for their existence and the very rationale for them joining with companies and working with them. 
I will briefly talk about two other initiatives where I have had the opportunity to see New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s role within New Zealand companies: Better by Design and the Lean Business programme. Effectively what New Zealand Trade and Enterprise does with companies is go into these companies and work with them using the Toyota model basically—that is trying to drive out inefficiencies and increase their productivity. Villa Maria Estate wines is just one company that has been involved in both those products of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. When I visited it quite recently it told me that it has lifted production by about 20 percent. If we get that amount of performance improvement out of companies here in New Zealand for them to then connect with international markets that will help grow the economy.