Services tops—Moore

Press, 24 September 1988, Page 39

Services tops—Moore

By

MARK REYNOLDS

The time has come to acknowledge that New Zealand is primarily a services economy, said the Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Mike Moore, yesterday. Seventy per cent of the jobs in New Zealand are in the services sector and for more than 30 years services have accounted

for a higher percentage of GDP than manufacturing and agriculture combined, he said. “Services trade continues to grow at a much faster pace than merchandise trade,” Mr Moore said in an address to the staff of the United Building Society. “In 1985 for example, global trade in services grew at more than twice

the' speed of trade in merchandise — 3.7 per cent for services against 1.7 per cent for goods. “As much as any other nation, New Zealand is part of the global economy. So like everyone else, New Zealanders have no choice but to link into it if we want to get our living standards up with the world’s best.” But Mr Moore said atti-

tudes had to change significantly if New Zealand was to cut it with the rest. “The perception has been that people in the services sector don’t make anything at all. Just moving other people’s money around, keeping a bit for themselves, is seen as primitive, tribal and reactionary.” But money is a tradeable commodity with many of the characteristics of other tradeable commodities, Mr Moore said. Trade in traditional products is now dwarfed by capital flows. The London Euro-dollar market turns over in dollar terms 25 times that of world trade. "Our balance sheet for trade is nbw irrelevant and unreal. Traditionally we exclude banking, shipping, etc, and call them invisibiles — I wish they were.” As well as changing our perception of tradeable goods, New Zealanders have to change their attitude towards work ethic and productivity, Mr Moore said. “When I was a freezing worker, putting it across the boss was the only challenge in the job. Nobody cared about leaving the taps or the lights on.” Now, flexibility, sacrifice and then reform is only achievable if people think they are not the only ones sacrificing and that they share a common goal from which they will get a common and fair return. “I’m going to be looking at bonus systems,” Mr Moore said. “It’s one of the ideas that I’ll be putting up the mast and if enough people salute it then there could well be the chance for something remarkable in New Zealand.” Mr Moore’s confidence in a change in attitudes is backed by an English example, the Sanyo Agreement. This is a joint British-Japanese company that started operating in Britain as part of the Japanese thrust into Europe. Since 1982 the company has more than doubled staff. There is only one combined negotiating unit, in the plant and flexibility allows workers to be transferred to any job within the company. All workers at Sanyo U.K. are treated equally for sick pay and holidays, and everyone clocks in, including the managers. The results are that Sanyo U.K. produces 9.8 televisions a worker, each day, compared with the British average of 6.5. “The result is more jobs, more security and more revenue for the Government,” Mr Moore said.