More Japanese money sought

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 24

More Japanese money sought

PA Auckland The Minister of Energy. Mr Birch, yesterday expressed concern at what he termed the low rate of Japanese investment in New Zealand.

Speaking at the opening of the tenth Japan New Zealand Business Conference in Auckland he said many new investment opportunities were available in energy-based resources such as natural gas and lignite.

Mr Birch said these were in addition to the big industrial development programme which had already largely been capitalised.

Mr Birch said it was surprising that Japan, with all its financial resources, seemed unwilling to invest risk capital in New Zealand.

Australian industry received SUS37O million from Japan in 1982, which was 12 times as much as Japan had invested in .New Zealand, he said.

“New Zealand had attracted SUS 246 million on

over-all foreign investment during the year ended June, 1982, but Japan’s share was a relatively small 12.6 per cent.”

Mr Birch said that foreign investment and technology transfer had come hand in hand from some foreign investors. “The New Zealand Government would like to see such participation in New Zealand by Japanese companies, too, perhaps as joint ventures. “We would like to benefit from the use of your technology advances, and we believe that we can offer something of value in return.”

The conference heard that cut-price European exports of cheese and other products to Japan were worrying New Zealand dairying and shipping interests. New Zealand dairy delegates to the conference said that heavily subsidised cheese exports from the E.E.C. had severely reduced the price for New Zealand cheese in Japan. Japan is New Zealand’s largest cheese market and

New Zealand is its biggest supplier at about 25,000 tonnes a year.

New Zealand shipping interests told the conference the greatest threat to developing orderly shipping services between the two countries was the worrying competition from the E.E.C. and Communist bloc countries in dairy products and animal by-products. Mr Ik C. Shaw of Seatrans Consolidated (N.Z.), Ltd, said cost and freight prices into Japan from these countries for items such as milkpowder stockfeed, cheeses, and hides were at levels which appeared to be verging on dumping. Japanese tour firms want more high-quality hotels in tourist centres.

In a paper to the conference, Mr Sadaharu Mori, general manager of the Japan Travel Bureau’s Sydney office, sought:

© More high-quality hotels in Christchurch, Queenstown, and Te Anau and nationally more hotels of quality acceptable to Japanese tourists.

9 A training programme for guides and hotel staff dealing regularly with Japanese tourists.

© A concerted effort to develop a year-round tourist programme from Japan to New Zealand. © A joint Australia-New Zealand tourist campaign in Japan. Mr Mori said high-quality hotels of an international level had been made available year after year in tourist cities such as Auckland or Rotorua. “In such cities as Christchurch, Queenstown or Te Anau, however, no improvement has been seen.” Air New Zealand’s additional weekly flights to Japan would make an enormous contribution in deepening understanding between the two countries, said the leader of the Japanese delegation at the conference, Mr Fumio Tanaka. He said that Air New Zealand had permission to make an extra weekly flight for only four months during the summer and way seeking a permanent agreement

from the Japanese Government.

A message from the Prime Minister of Japan, Mr Yasuhiro Nakasone, read to the conference, said, “Interchange between our two countries at various levels is the cornerstone of our sound bilateral relations. These interchanges have expanded at an amazing pace in the areas of politics, business, culture, and sports.”

The conference heard that many Japanese tuna boats might abandon fishing in New Zealand waters as a result of what the Japanese industry felt were exorbitant licence fees.

The new fees, which came into effect on October 1, represented a “drastic mark-up for the second consecutive year,” said the president of Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd, Mr Shunichi Ohkuchi. The fees for southern bluefin tuna were increased 33 per cent last year, and now a 64 per cent increase was being instituted, he said.