The leading corporate and commercial law firm Lowndes Associates is pitting two stellar teams of academics and commentators against each other in a timely debate over whether New Zealand will reach the top half of the OECD by 2020. The debate will be staged at the final Lowndes Associates Business Intelligence Seminar of 2009 on 18 November. Mark Lowndes and Rod Oram spoke on ASB Business TV about why this is an important discussion.

Business journalist Rod Oram is one of the four panellists, and will pair with author and broadcaster Gordon McLauchlan to make the case that New Zealand will not resume its former place as a leading OECD country by 2020. The other team, arguing the affirmative, consists of Professor Sir Paul Callaghan of Victoria University of Wellington and Jon Mayson, Chairman of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.

Among the questions the debaters will address is whether New Zealand should continue to rely on agriculture and tourism, or whether we must invest in science and technology, becoming the Switzerland of the South Pacific.

Mr Oram says while he spends his working life arguing in favour of New Zealand’s “amazing” opportunities, “in this case I am happy to argue the negative case, because I have a grave reservation – that is, while we talk a lot about what we can do, if we stay on our current trajectory, we simply won’t achieve it. And I don’t see what’s going to change the game – what’s going to make us wake up and realize how serious the downside is if we don’t seize the opportunities and meet the challenges.”

For starters, he says if we are to meet the National government’s goal of catching up with the Australian economy in per capita terms by 2025, New Zealand’s economy needs to grow at twice the rate of recent years – but a lot of this previous growth has come from debt-driven consumption and a rise in property values.

“We’re the third most indebted developed country in the world, with the second-highest level of household debt in the OECD. What is our plan? We don’t even have ambitious enough economic policies for future growth and OECD achievement, because we don’t know what we want to do.”

Meanwhile, he says, “The developing countries, particularly China, Brazil and India, are adapting far faster and more profoundly to the new global drivers. They understand better than we do that this has been not just a recession and financial crisis, but a systemic failure in finance, economies and resource use.

“It’s very hard to get any acknowledgement that this is more than a normal recession. Most New Zealanders think we’ve had our recession, and now we must just get back to our existing business strategies. I would argue those strategies are already failing.”

He says our strategy to this point, of keeping up with competitors by driving efficiency hard and “hanging on to the coat-tails of others”, was no longer viable. “It won’t work any more because of the increase in competitors with much lower cost bases than us, and the relative decline in value of the commodities we produce.

“An agricultural economy is still feasible, but we need to massively internationalize what we’re very good at – invest in commodity production in South America, for example.”

Lowndes Associates Partner Mark Lowndes says the quality of the participants and the topical nature of the debate makes the final 2009 Lowndes Associates Business Intelligence workshop valuable to businesspeople. “As Rod points out, there are urgent questions facing the nation: what are the policies for government and strategies for business in this new national economy? These are important questions at the heart of future economic strategy and success, and we look forward to a robust and fruitful discussion.”

Details:
Workshop 4: The Big Debate – Will New Zealand Will Get to the Top Half of the OECD by 2020?
Date: Wednesday 18 November 2009
Time: 7.30am–9.30am
Location: Stamford Plaza, Auckland
Tickets: $72 + GST

About the Speakers

Professor Sir Paul Callaghan, Victoria University of Wellington

Sir Paul Callaghan is a graduate of Oxford University (DPhil), and of Victoria University of Wellington where he is Alan MacDiarmid Professor of Physical Sciences. Paul is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and is currently President of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance. He is a regular public speaker on science matters. In 2007 one of his radio series with Kim Hill appeared in book form, As Far as We Know: Conversations about Science, Life and the Universe, and a 2009 book, Wool to Weta: Transforming New Zealand’s Culture and Economy, deals with the potential for science and technology entrepreneurs to diversify New Zealand’s economy.

Mr Jon Mayson, Chairman New Zealand Trade & Enterprise

Jon Mayson is chair of the board of New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, and a past president of Export New Zealand. Previously CEO of Port of Tauranga Limited, he is a professional director and consultant and currently chairs several private company boards involved in manufactured exports and logistics. His consultancy work in New Zealand and offshore has been focused around port privatization and transport logistics. Jon is a Fellow of the Institute of Management, a member of the Institute of Directors and has an MBA in International Management. He was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006.

Mr Gordon McLauchlan, Author and Broadcaster

Gordon McLauchlan has been a freelance journalist/writer since 1973. He has been a books editor (New Zealand Herald), a newspaper columnist, an investigative reporter (National Business Review), and a presenter of radio and television programmes. His books include: The Passionless People (1976), a social commentary; The Acid Test (1981), an anthology of New Zealand humour; Bateman’s New Zealand Encyclopedia (1984); The Big Con (1992), a political commentary; The Story of New Zealand Beer (1995); A History of New Zealand Humour (1998); A Short History of New Zealand (2004); A Life’s Sentences (2004), a memoir; The Farming of New Zealand (2007); The Life and Times of Auckland (2008).

Mr Rod Oram, Business Journalist

Rod Oram has more than 30 years’ experience as an international business journalist, including with the Financial Times in London and New York and as editor of the Business Herald in Auckland. He is currently a columnist for the Sunday Star-Times and Good magazine; a regular broadcaster on radio and television; and a frequent public speaker on business and economic issues. Rod is an adjunct professor in the business faculty at Unitec in Auckland. He is the 2009 winner of Landcorp’s Agricultural Communicator of the Year award, and the author of Reinventing Paradise, a book about the New Zealand economy, published by Penguin in 2007.

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For further information, please contact:

Kate Alexander
Alexander Communications Ltd
+(64) 27 244 6094
kate@alexandercomms.co.nz

About Lowndes Associates
Lowndes Associates is a leading corporate and commercial law firm with a network of trusted associates around the world. It exclusively represents the Multilaw and Legalink international networks in New Zealand.
The firm comprises carefully selected teams of industry-leading specialists. Together they reinforce the firm’s reputation as a law firm with a strong sense of commerce.  Lowndes Associates prides itself on its ability to integrate specialist input from different areas of the law into seamless advice focused on what matters – the commercial outcome. Many of the firm’s lawyers have second degrees in business and management, and have qualifications and major international firm experience, including in Asia, Europe, the United States, the UK and Australia.
In the 2007 to 2009 editions of the Asia Pacific Legal 500 Guide to Asia’s Commercial Law Firms directory, Lowndes Associates has received listings as a leading commercial law firm in the following categories:
• Corporate/M&A
• Dispute Resolution
• Intellectual Property
• Restructuring and Insolvency
• Technology Media & Telecommunications
In the most recent editions of the IFLR1000 guide to the world’s leading financial law firms and the Chambers directory of top lawyers, the firm is highly ranked in the insolvency and restructuring areas.

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