Opposition MPs condemned the speech and its supporting document, Growing an Innovative New Zealand, as worthy but long on rhetoric.
"The Clark speech is at best a bodybag for good ideas," National leader Bill English said.
"We got yesterday's fish and chips warmed up again."
Act finance spokesman Rodney Hide said the policy launch was a "burger without meat" - "It's just more Wellington sloganeering and policy gobbledegook."
The economic strategy, which is likely to be the centrepiece of Labour's re-election plans, will focus on three sectors the Government believes will boost the economy: bio-technology, information and communications technology and the creative industries.
Helen Clark said joint private-public taskforces would monitor progress in those sectors to ensure state agencies gave them priority.
But she rejected business calls for lower taxes and a reversal of recent changes to workplace law.
"While some still hanker after lower tax rates and further deregulation as the key economic prescription, I believe many more are seeing the strategic focus the Government is adopting and the policy interventions which accompany it as more likely to contribute to sustained growth."
New Zealand already had substantial economic freedom and a low cost of doing business, and it was important decent environmental and labour standards were maintained in the drive for a high-value, sustainable economy.
However, Helen Clark attempted to ease business concerns that the Government was moving too fast to implement the Kyoto agreementon reducing greenhouse gases.
"The Government intends to move in step with, and not ahead of, the broad consensus of Western countries on Kyoto," she said, adding that the full treaty would not take effect until 2008.
Earlier, the Finance Minister, Michael Cullen, said the Government hoped its plan would lift growth rates to more than 4 per cent a year by 2007 so New Zealand could get back into the top half of the league of developed countries.
Asked if the Reserve Bank would push up interest rates to control inflation and thus curb such growth rates, Dr Cullen said the bank would have to be convinced higher growth rates were sustainable.
He said the Government was investigating ways to change the tax system to help small businesses and encourage foreign investment. It would make its plans known this year.
Business reaction to the economic policy launch was mixed.
The Knowledge Wave Trust, set up to promote the recommendations from last year's Knowledge Wave conference, welcomed the commitment to innovation-led growth.
But trust director Bridget Wickham said the real test would be the speed and substance of change.
Business NZ chief executive Simon Carlaw said the Government's challenge was to foster growth and innovation in a high-tax environment.
Outlining the rest of the Government's programme for the year, Helen Clark said laws implementing United Nations recommendations on combating terrorism would be a priority in coming weeks.
The Government would also move to impose big fines and long prison terms on people smugglers.
Other law changes would provide for a two-year "constraint" period on release of genetically modified organisms, which she said was not at odds with the focus on biotechnology, because GM was only a small part of biotechnology.
A major transport policy would be released in the next few months covering road, rail, sea and air.
As part of that, a land transport strategy would help address Auckland's congestion and roading issues in the regions.
The Herald has previously reported plans for a 4c-a-litre petrol tax increase and laws making it easier to set up toll roads.
Read the full reports:
Government of New Zealand
Growing an innovative New Zealand
Part 2
Herald features
Catching the knowledge wave
Global Kiwis
Proud to be a Kiwi
Our turn
The jobs challenge
Common core values
