Hot sectors, high hopes

Action plans to drive New Zealand's transition to a knowledge society need to have a focus - which sectors and industries need work if the country is going to move forward?

A report compiled by the Boston Consulting Group for the Competitive Auckland project identified six "hot sectors" to underpin future growth: tourism, marine, information technology and communications, food and beverages, biotechnology and education.

Added to these can be the film and television industry which has been surging ahead recently and, not forgetting the country's roots, the primary sector.

The first six sectors were put forward by Competitive Auckland - a business-led group formed to enhance Auckland's international competitiveness as a business location - which says those industries have the potential to generate an extra $6.2 billion in foreign earnings for the city.

This in turn will benefit the rest of the country, as Auckland contributes more to the country's economy than it drains.

Broken down, sector by sector:

Tourism:

moving from export earnings of $1.55 billion in 2000 to $4.3 billion in 2010. This will be achieved by focussing resources to raise international awareness and increasing tourist spending.

Food and beverages:

moving from $1.1 billion in export earnings last year to $2.2 billion in 2010 by focusing on secondary processing and building on access to high quality produce.

Marine:

from $200 million in export earnings last year to $1 billion in 2010 by capitalising on the current growth momentum and profile. Continuing to serve the high end of the market and broadening into related products and services.

IT and communications:

from $80 million in export earnings last year to $800 million in 2010. The plan is to aggressively build on pockets of strength, cluster innovation around expertise centres to attract multinational research and development, and boost networking and venture funding.

Biotechnology:

raising export earnings from $80 million last year to $800 million in 2010 by creating centres of excellence linking businesses and communities.

Education:

from export earnings last year of $180 million, to $360 million in 2010, by raising international awareness through targeted marketing.

Added to this half-dozen can be:

Film and TV:

the past eight years have seen a boom in the local film production industry. Last year, production financing totalled $497 million - $343 million of that from foreign sources.

Foreign financing of films shot in New Zealand increased by nearly 900 per cent between 1994 and last year, thanks mainly to projects such as Xena and Hercules, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the snow-bound action movie Vertical Limit.

The plan, set out in a report commissioned by Investment New Zealand, the Film Commission and the Film Unit, recommends a budget boost for Film NZ, the office that markets "studio New Zealand" to the world's film makers.

Primary sector:

New Zealand's success to date has been largely based on the primary sector. To bring this into line with the new knowledge economy, today's technology must be applied to farming and forestry.

In 1999-2000, agricultural exports were worth $12.4 billion, a 35 per cent increase in real terms on 14 years earlier.

Over the same period, agriculture's contribution to gross domestic product rose by 26 per cent, from $72.3 billion to $91.4 billion, or from 14.2 per cent to 16.6 per cent of GDP.

Within the sector there is a deeply held conviction that it can deliver much more to the economy, and that primary industries long hailed as the most efficient in the world will be able to hold off strong challenges from other countries to maintain that prominence.

An example of this is the newly formed $12.5 billion GlobalCo dairy company which reshapes New Zealand's dairy industry and will become the country's biggest business, and one of the world's top ten dairy companies, when it is officially launched in October.

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