N E W S
12 June 2018
Budget impact on exporters and
manufacturers
The 2018 Budget’s allocation of $1 billion
towards R&D tax credits will be welcomed
by exporting and manufacturing firms
according to industry commentators.
Catherine Beard, executive director for
ExportNZ and ManufacturingNZ, says
innovation support was particularly
valued by exporters and manufacturers.
"Setting up a tax credit scheme in addition
to the support available through
Callaghan Innovation will increase the
support available for business.
"While the firms that were getting Growth
Grants under the Callaghan Innovation
scheme were very happy with that
support, there were a large number of
companies that were getting little or
no support.
She says that the new approach should
be more broadly targeted and hopes it
will accelerate business investment in
R&D across the board.
"ExportNZ and ManufacturingNZ are working
with industry and officials to ensure
we get the scheme to be as effective as
is possible for both the large and small
businesses we represent.
"Exporters will also be supportive of
additional funding going to the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and Trade in these
increasingly troubling times when it
comes to talk of trade wars, and higher
tariffs and non-tariff barriers.
Catherine adds that New Zealand officials
work hard on behalf of exporters and as
a small country they have to do it with
fewer boots on the ground, so this boost
will be welcome.
"With regard to greater investment in the
Pacific to the tune of $714 million, ExportNZ
and ManufacturingNZ would want
to ensure that this is quality spending.
"By ‘quality spending’ we mean that New
Zealand firms are given good opportunity
to tender for any building or infrastructure
projects and that tenders are let on the
basis of quality rather than cheapest price.
"New Zealand firms can compete on
quality products and services and the
Pacific Islands need quality that will last
the distance and be enduring solutions.
"Spending in the Pacific which included
New Zealand business solutions would
be ‘win-win’," Catherine Beard says.
Optimise performance with Intelligent Motor Control
• Increases productivity across the automation lifecycle
• Improves asset intelligence for better decision making
• Ensures your operations are safe
• Secures your environment
NHP Electrical Engineering Prodcuts
0800 NHP NHP | nhp-nz.com
NHP94984_03/18
For your next project, visit nhp-nz.com/more/intellmc
94984_NZ Eng News_APRIL_AD.indd 1 9/03/2018 2:16 PM
REN092
Service to help reconcile very different seismic assessments
Engineering New Zealand chief executive
Susan Freeman-Greene says engineers
are concerned by reports of widely differing
seismic assessments, so they’ve
launched a service to help resolve the
situation.
“Seismic assessments require significant
professional judgement. This means
that different engineers can produce
differing assessments of the same
building. But it’s important they are in
the same ballpark.”
Ms Freeman-Greene says if there are
significantly different seismic assessments
for the same building, Engineering
New Zealand first recommends those
engineers work together to agree on
an outcome.
“But sometimes engineers can’t reach
resolution themselves. That’s why Engineering
New Zealand has launched
a programme to guide this process.”
Engineering New Zealand’s programme
provides independent, expert facilitation
Roadmap
to help Kiwi
businesses reduce
environmental
impact
Associate Environment Minister,
Honourable Eugenie Sage,
together with Fuji Xerox New
Zealand (FXNZ) is launching a
roadmap to product stewardship.
The Roadmap is a guide that gets
businesses to think about how
they are managing their products’
environmental impacts so they
can take the first step to a circular
economy.
The Product Stewardship
Roadmap is an ‘open source’
guide developed by FXNZ in
conjunction with the Ministry
for the Environment (MfE), the
Sustainable Business Network
(SBN) and MfE Accredited Product
Stewardship Scheme managers.
FXNZ managing director Peter
Thomas says the Roadmap
is about companies better
understanding their product
lifecycles and identifying areas
of opportunity for products
to be reused, recycled and / or
repurposed through putting
in place a product stewardship
scheme.
LOADS OF
EXTRA
MULTIMEDIA
CONTENT
SIGN UP FOR
YOUR FREE eMag
/nhp-nz.com
/intellmc