1. Economic Diversification—Technology and Manufacturing SectorsBRETT HUDSON (National) to the Minister of FinanceORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSEconomic Diversification—Technology and Manufacturing Sectors1. BRETT HUDSON (National) to the Minister of Finance: What reports has he received on the diversification of the New Zealand economy?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Associate Minister of Finance) on behalf of the Minister of Finance: The Minister has seen a number of reports including as recently as last night when the Technology Investment Network (TIN) report was launched by the Minister of Science and Innovation. The report shows that New Zealand's leading 200 high-tech companies have now reached combined annual revenues of $9.4 billion up 12 percent or nearly $1 billion in just 1 year. The report shows revenue growth across all regions of the country. The member will be interested to see Wellington leading the regional revenue growth with Wellington companies increasing their turnover by 15.3 percent while Auckland contributed the greatest proportion of revenue overall with $5.4 billion. This report is another positive indicator of the health of the tech sector a tribute to the companies and their staff involved and it also shows the value of the work that Government agencies are doing through the Business Growth Agenda to help grow those companies.Brett Hudson: What role does research and development play in the growth of the tech sector?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Research and development plays a very large role in making our companies more innovative. R & D across the TIN200 companies grew by a record 16 percent in the last year and they are now spending $827 million of their turnover on research and development. It is a real investment in the future of these companies and will help lift the overall investment levels of New Zealand companies in research and development. This shows true in this year's TIN100 report which tells an impressive story of exporting success in the tech sector with the 200 companies' collective export revenues up 13.5 percent from last year to nearly $7 billion.Brett Hudson: How is this growth translated into jobs?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Job growth among the TIN200 companies has increased by nearly 8 percent in the last year alone with nearly 3000 new high-value jobs created. These 200 companies between them now employ almost 40000 people. The major areas of employment growth were in digital media healthcare and financial services businesses. One of the biggest employers in the tech sector remains the high-tech manufacturing sector which accounts for more than half of the TIN workforce.David Seymour: How and when will the Government clarify regulation around fees for peer-to-peer lenders so that that part of the financial technology industry may resume growth?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I can update the member that I know the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs is working on this exact matter possibly as we speak.Brett Hudson: What other reports has he received on the strength of the manufacturing sector?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Last week Business New Zealand announced the September performance of manufacturing index which is the indicator of manufacturing performance—the PMI survey. It reported a reading of 57.7 with values above 50 indicating that the manufacturing sector is generally expanding. This is the highest reading since October 2014 and indicates that the manufacturing sector has now been in expansion for 47 of the last 48 months. New Zealand's PMI is the strongest across the seven countries in which it is measured including Australia Japan China the UK and the US.Grant Robertson: Can the Minister confirm that since his Government came into office housing debt has grown from $161 billion to $223 billion an increase of 39 percent and at the same time business lending has increased from $82 billion to $92 billion—only a 12 percent increase; and is that the kind of balanced economy he is after?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Actually businesses have been immensely profitable in New Zealand over the last 7 years so perhaps they have not had to finance it so much from debt. But in terms of the member's concern for household debt I would like to refer him to the monthly economic indicators—Grant Robertson: Housing.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: —yes housing debt thank you—for Treasury in September where it makes some comments about household debt: The accumulation of debt has to date not been the result of sustained dissaving; Debt servicing rates are well within historical ranges and may fall further; Net wealth and … net financial wealth has been increasing; Housing debt to asset ratios have fallen." Grant Robertson: No they haven't. No they haven't. That's not true.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: So it is not all bad news Mr Robertson. That is according to Treasury—that is according to Treasury Mr Robertson."