NZ First’s Shane Jones: Concerned about food security, Singapore keen to invest in Kiwi roads and water infrastructure

Singapore is keen to invest in New Zealand infrastructure, including the Government’s planned road building programme and much-needed water infrastructure, according to Minister Shane Jones, who has just returned from a visit to the wealthy city state.

But what Singapore is really interested in is food, particularly food security. During the pandemic, the tiny nation discovered that broken supply chains threatened the food security of its 6 million inhabitants.

The Government set a goal of ensuring 30% of Singapore’s nutritional needs could be met locally by 2030, but the remainder will still need to be imported from somewhere else. The country is anxious to ensure a reliable supply of food to see it through good times and bad.

Jones thinks there’s a role for New Zealand to play as a supplier and the Singaporeans seem interested. In December a food delegation from the Singaporean Government will be welcomed to New Zealand. Jones is keen to see they invest some money here as a hedge against any geopolitical problems that could disrupt Singapore’s food supply.

Jones’ NZ First colours mean he is “sensitive” around foreign ownership of pastoral land because “control and utilisation of pastoral land is deeply held in the New Zealand identity”.

Minister Shane Jones and Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong. Photo / Supplied

However, he said there were other parts areas where Singapore might choose to invest, including in aspects of food production and infrastructure like water storage.

“In my discussions with food entities in Singapore, I emphasised if you want food security then ideally you should invest in it.

“You can buy food any time of the day from New Zealand, [but] if you want to take a hedge to ensure key food inputs can be gained in the future then finding the right partners in New Zealand is crucial,” Jones told the Herald.

He was joined on the trip by former National Minister Murray McCully who now chairs the Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust, which aims to establish two working water schemes planned for Northland.

Jones said the Singaporeans understood that access to water meant “you have the ability to diversify the use of land”.

“They understand the strategic value of water,” he said.

Jones met members of the Singaporean Government on his trip including Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong.

He spoke at Singapore’s Energy Week which brought together ministers and executives from the energy sector including Amin Nasser, president and CEO of Saudi Arabian oil giant, Aramco. Jones said his own message at the conference was to communicate the Government’s “significant reset” on the issue of the energy mix and the new Government’s “openness to oil and gas as it represents a contingency fuel”.

Jones also met with executives from agribusiness and the arms of Singaporean state-owned investment giant Temasek.

He is trying to drum up foreign investment to help meet some of the Government’s infrastructure goals. His visit follows visits by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters earlier this year.

Jones said Singaporean investors were generally attracted to New Zealand for thanks to its strong legal system and the cultural ties between the two countries, which will soon celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations. The challenge, however, is that the pools of capital in Singapore are so “stupendously large” they often require encouragement to “co-invest with Kiwis on projects that wouldn’t normally come across their radar screen”.

There was still work to be done in terms of Kiwis promoting themselves. “The sense I had from them is we are no longer immediately on the radar whether that is related to Covid or whether we’ve become complacent without appreciating you have to get out and hustle,” Jones said.

Jones said there was some interest in roading investment and building a dry dock facility, an area where Singapore has a lot of expertise - many New Zealand ships including the Interislander ships use Singaporean dry docks for maintenance.

NZ First wants to construct a dry dock in New Zealand and included in its coalition agreement with National a promise to progress a detailed business case for a dry dock at Marsden Point.

He said there was also interest in New Zealand water infrastructure, although whether private capital would be involved in water investment would ultimately be made by local councils.

Jones said New Zealanders would need to get use to some foreign investment in infrastructure, given the parlous state of the Government’s finances.

“I’m an Associate Finance Minister and deeply acquainted with the state of the Crown books ... We just do not have the taxpayer revenue to meet the infrastructure expectations the public are expecting us to deliver on,” he said.

“If you want accelerated infra then you are going to have to trade off between historic belief [in state ownership and financing] and contemporary reality,” Jones said.

Thomas Coughlan is deputy political editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the Press Gallery since 2018.