Industry must prepare to face increased competition — Mr Birch

Press, 19 August 1982, Page 3

Industry must prepare to face increased competition — Mr Birch

PA Wellington New Zealand firms were told ,by the Government yesterday that they could expect to’be less protected from competition in the future. Industry is “being opened up to reasonable international competition,” the Minister of Energy (Mr Birch) told a meeting of professional engineers in Dunedin.

“Times are "changing and Government attitudes are changing too.” New. Zealand firms will have to “sell themselves, seek business, and be internationally competitive. -They will need to look closely at their methods of working, and if necessary, adopt new technology. .They -can expect to be less protected by regu-

lation,” said Mr Birch.

Even for industries still protected by import licensing, the opportunity existed for imports to be approved “where the price of the New Zealand products is seen to be manifestly excessive when compared with the equivalent imported product.”

Export incentives would be reviewed before the 1983 Budget, Mr Birch said, and “will be phased out of Tasman trade by 1986 upder closer economic relations.”

Industries which exploited a natural resource would appear to be the ones that had the best prospects of future export success, he said.

“We must, look beyond the exploitation of th® Maui and

Kapuni gas fields, which are now the focus for the bulk of the major projects. “Such natural resources include the favourable climate for pastoral farming — there is still scope for significantly increased production,” said Mr Birch.

“There is vast scope to do more processing of the raw materials coming from pastoraL farming. There is no good reason why we should continue to, export our raw material in largely unprocessed form,” he said. ’

Mr Birch named lamb carcases as a case in point. He also said that New Zealand was moving away from the export of unprocessed sawlogs into the export of con-struction-grade timber and furniture components.