Weightless Economy

Feather on the shore Wellington Harbour near Waitangi Park.

Photo by Marie-Louise Siddle 2009.

Prime Minister John Key delivered a speech on New Zealand's economic performance to a business audience in Wellington on Wednesday 15th July.
It outlined six main policy drivers for the Government -- regulatory reform, infrastructure investment, better public services, education and skills, innovation and a world-class tax system. John Key said the tradable sector of the economy, which includes agriculture, tourism, forestry and manufacturing, has effectively been in recession for five years.
There was no specific mention of assistance to, or ideas for the export sector. The sectors mentioned by John Key in his speech focus still on New Zealand’s traditional areas. What about the weightless economy? It would seem that the series of Discussion Papers on the New Zealand economy put out by the New Zealand Institute’s Director David Skilling have been shelved. In a presentation which he made in 2007 David Skilling says:
‘New Zealand is more likely to succeed in weightless goods and services: adding knowledge-based value to physical products, developing business models that locate production process offshore, as well as producing services that can be transported virtually.’ Creating the weightless economy: positioning New Zealand to compete in the global economy. Unpublished presentation.
David Skilling’s Discussion Paper series are available through the ELIS catalogue.