By FRAN O'SULLIVAN
The Prime Minister can kiss goodbye to her ambition for New Zealand to be back into the top half of the OECD by 2011.
Rather than getting down to action, Helen Clark seems to have been seduced by the three year election cycle into post-poning the execution of some excellent proposals for change.
What other rational reason is there for not grabbing with both hands the work which some of New Zealand's best brains have collaborated on since early last year and implementing their recommendations right now, instead of extending the "national conversation" with yet more advisory team reports, to the point of torpor?
Helen Clark's statement to Parliament laid out a vision for this country which many New Zealanders could accept.
After the socialist waffle and anti-business sentiment which permeated the Government's first year in office, here finally was the focus on celebrating success and becoming internationally competitive to lift our sights above her Government's underlying platform of social justice for all.
Amid the plethora of excellent reports released yesterday on how we become more innovative, lift foreign investment and keep Kiwi talent and attract the world's best, one was missing.
It was the national action plan, with timeline, budget and stretch targets.
If the Prime Minister had spelt this out, it could have inspired many New Zealanders to join the mission to turn this country round.
Careful reading of myriad reports, finally released yesterday after months of gestation and dust-gathering, indicates New Zealand is on the path to a full-blown crisis if urgent plans to arrest the economic decline are not swiftly executed.
Take the 2011 target for getting back into the top half of the OECD.
The cynics among us might say the Prime Minister is on safe ground in trumpeting such a goal, as the odds are that her Government is not likely to be in office in 2011 to claim its success or admit its failure.
But as the Boston Consulting Group points out, the decline of New Zealand's wealth has been dramatic and will continue if we do not get substantial new investment.
To achieve Helen Clark's goal, New Zealand's GDP must grow by five per cent a year y rising from $105 billion last year to $171 billion in 2011.
Rick Christie's Science and Innovation Advisory Council calculates that getting into the top half of the OECD will require the emergence of new businesses equivalent to three times the current dairy industry.
This is a very tall order.
Boston Consulting reports that there is a very real risk of significant disinvestment by foreign investors over the next two to three years, particularly in heavy industry.
As 83 of the nation's top 200 companies are foreign controlled, New Zealand runs the risk of losing companies fastest than we can replace them.
Yesterday was the Government's opportunity to immediately confirm it would setup an Investment Promotion Agency - as recommended - and give tax incentives to foreign investors for new ventures.
It may have fluffed that opportunity. But it would win respect if it moved before the Budget instead of waiting till November.
Read the full reports:
Government of New Zealand
Growing an innovative New Zealand
Part 2
Herald features