Capital From N.Z. Earnings

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31737, 22 July 1968, Page 20

Capital From N.Z. Earnings

(From Our Own Reporter) AUCKLAND, July 21. New Zealand was producing $l9 out of every $2O for capital investment from its own earnings, the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) said at the National Party conference last evening.

In a symposium on development in the 19705, Mr Muldoon said that during the term of the present Government the growth in capital development had been $5300 million.

“We have $3OO million on short-term loan from overseas. That is, $3OO million out of 55300 million invested in new power stations, roads, and industries,” he said. “Out of the earnings from these investments we can easily repay our borrowings.”

Another speaker in the symposium, Mr J. N. C. Doig, the chairman of directors >f U.E.B. Industries, said New Zealand should supply semifinished products to its neighbours in the Pacific and South-East Asia. Forecasting a substantial growth in processing industries during the 19705, Mr Doig recommended that New Zealand choose the fields in which it made the most spectacular developments and cooperate with Asian countries in processing industries. These tended to require a high intensity of capital in their initial stages and a high intensity of labour in the later stages of processing, he

said. New Zealand would ensure markets for itself at the same time.