Export potential for services

Press, 10 June 1980, Page 17

Export potential for services

PA Wellington Overseas earnings from the export of services equals only a fraction of what New Zealand pays to foreign sources for technology and expertise. 'But the Services Export Development Grants Advisory Committee is confident that with “appropriate encouragement” New Zealand’s export, potential in services can -be expanded considerably. The committee’s annual report, tabled in Parliament, says world trade in a wide range of services is increasing rapidly. “In the year under review a disturbing feature of statistics of New Zealand’s overseas exchange transactions was the. continued increase in the net payments the country has to make overseas for a variety of services, as

well as for various other ‘invisible’ transactions.” The report says that an increased effort by services industries would help to reduce the deficit by increasing overseas earnings or providing substitutes for the services New Zealand now pays for from abroad. The committee does not think - that?- international contracting activities will face particularly difficult times. It also notes that overseas contracts of $25 million in the commission’s last six years far exceeded the $1.2 million in service export development grants. The commission ceased to function from April this vear after the lifting of the level of assistance for services exporters to that available to exporters of manufactured goods.