SILENCE ON BALANCE OF PAYMENTS CRITICISED

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31984, 10 May 1969, Page 48

SILENCE ON BALANCE OF PAYMENTS CRITICISED

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 9. The retiring Government Statistician, Mr J. V. T. Baker, was critical today of the National Development Conference not formulating a policy on balance of payments.

Commenting oil the report of one of the three conference committees which considered recommendations this week, Mr Baker said there were blurred areas in the blueprint that the conference sought to give the country.

One such blurr was the absence of a balance-of-payments policy. “The most important blurred part is that there is no such policy—and we need it for an area which so notoriously fluctuates. “Any administration which has no policy on this will be forced into stop-go policies.” Mr Baker said delegates should not leave the conference thinking New Zealand now had a complete blueprint for its development.

Mr Baker also asked bow the country moved from the present to 1972-73, the first half of the decade set to achieve the targets. New Zealand was not yet out of a recession, and it was still a time of restraint. The chairman of the targets committee, Mr A. R. Low (Wellington), said the economy would be stretched and under strain to achieve the targets of growth; there was no implication of deflation of the economy in the achievement. Recommendations Passed He said the uncertainty of the country’s external trading position could make the targets harder to achieve. The conference passed the 280 recommendations considered by the committee. A sophisticated and flexible policy of protection was proposed by the industrial recommendations, said the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Marshall).

“The first step is to ascertain with greater precision what is the degree of, protection accorded domestic industry at present,” he said. “At the same time the re-

solutions envisage a study of the possible application of some fresh ideas and new concepts both for tariff formation and more generally for the protection of industry, including, in some cases, import control.” said Mr Marshall.

“Hungry World”

The farmer had been asked by the targets set to increase production by 50 per cent, but some said that this should not be done without first ensuring that the produce could be sold.

“The message of this conference is that we can and will do both. “We live in a hungry world, in a world of rising standards of living; our re-

cord in the past c’n give us confidence for the future.

“There will be adjustments in production, but we cannot stop producing and we will not let up in our marketing drive,” said Mr Marshall. For the manufacturer, the message was clear—an 800 per cent increase in export earnings.

“For the individual manufacturer this means expansion, and increased productivity. It means, within New Zealand, a bigger consumer demand from a rising standard of living.

“It means a firmer base in the domestic market—but it postulates the efficiency and competitiveness to maintain the export growth of the last few years.”