By ELLEN READ markets writer
New Zealand needs a mission statement if it wants to develop and attract more foreign investment, says a director of one of the world's largest banks.
Amsterdam-based Sergio Rial of ABN Amro says one overseas perception of New Zealand is that the country does not know
what it wants to be, and this inhibits investment.
The lack of a clear direction or identity prevents niche industries from developing, meaning New Zealand is far from being in the front of overseas investors' minds.
While the debate has started in this country, Rial's suggestion is that New Zealand aims to be the main education centre for Asia Pacific.
This would encourage industries such as biotechnology and agribusiness, which tend to follow academia, and would also produce a flow of business people who knew New Zealand.
As for the rash of international banks and stockbroking firms departing over the past year or so, Rial explains this by saying there is a global trend towards consolidation.
Technology has made the world more transparent and allowed businesses and industry to consolidate, which in turn leads banks and brokers to do likewise as they follow their clients.
Rial says more international names will leave the country as they follow global clients and scale back to concentrate on sorting out problems of rapid expansion in their home markets.
A few years down the track they may look at moving overseas again, he says.
Rial was in New Zealand last week for an ABN Amro Australia/New Zealand advisory council meeting. He denied rumours that the firm was planning to quit New Zealand.
