Section 7: Opening the Way for Business
Enterprise Education and Support for Business Careers in School
Promoting entrepreneurial activity amongst young people is recognised internationally as critical to encouraging and assisting people successfully into self-employment.
Unfortunately the majority of New Zealand secondary school students leave school without having been exposed to the concepts of business enterprise. This is despite the fact that there are many enterprise education schemes currently being supported by the government, some of which (notably those promoted by the Enterprise New Zealand Trust) are recognised as world-leading.
Our observation is that the work of youth enterprise education providers in New Zealand is fragmented. They appear not to link with each other. Moreover, careers in self-employment seem to us not to be actively promoted by most school careers advisors.
We consider that it is time to give greater prominence to enterprise education in our curriculum. We note for example that in the United Kingdom 14-16 year-old students now have an entitlement to five days' enterprise learning each year. We think too that the government should act now to co-ordinate, raise the standards, and better support the best of the enterprise education initiatives available in New Zealand.
That the government ensure basic enterprise education is part of the core curriculum at Year 10 (4th form) and that provision is made for better support for enterprise education providers and for promoting careers in business to school pupils.
Government Procurement Policies
Government is the largest purchaser of goods and services in New Zealand.
Even the smallest government contract can provide the momentum for an SME to grow.
However, the procurement practices and processes of many government agencies work against the interests of SMEs. For example, risk-adverse purchasing officers will often automatically prefer a larger international firm to a small New Zealand-based provider.
Similarly, the government does not make the most of the opportunity it has to encourage higher product and services standards and innovation through the way it structures and awards its procurement contracts.
That the barriers to government agencies purchasing from New Zealand suppliers be identified and remedied to ensure that the government makes greater use of its procurement powers as a tool to encourage innovation and growth in New Zealand's
SMEs.
Single Market with Australia
Exporting is vital to the growth of the New Zealand economy. Australia is our largest market and the one most SMEs would look to export to in the first instance.
Many SMEs rely on small orders and quick repeat orders. The high and rapidly growing fixed costs imposed by governments, at the customs border on both sides of the Tasman, therefore inhibit the growth of exports by SMEs.
CER has been in place for 20 years. While it has brought considerable benefits to firms on both sides of the Tasman, there is a need now to move quickly to a regime that establishes the concept of a Shared Economic Market, including common border arrangements and common product standards.
That the government make greater efforts to harmonise borders with Australia and make trading with our neighbour easier.