Farm money assured

Press, 26 March 1981, Page 3

Farm money assured

Wellington reporter Capital for farm development and increased farm production will be available as required. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) gave this assurance when he met Federated Farmers and the producer boards this week. He said he still heard some farmer politicians asserting that the capital requirements of the major energy based

programme would be obtained at the expense of farming. That was not so and had never been so.

The major energy based projects would largely be financed off-shore. New Zealand’s international credit was such that there was a queue of bankers waiting to participate in the financing of those projects, Mr Muldoon said.

The projects would be capable of servicing the loans with a substantial surplus

that would be available for general purposes. They were export and import-substitu-tion based, and each one stood on its own feet as a sound investment.

Independent international observers now agreed that New Zealand stood on the threshold of a period of great economic development and, as had been the case in the past, the most important industries associated with that development ■ would be the farming industries, he said.