May 28th, 2010
Although some may cringe at the name, more SMEs are turning to mentoring to help them through economic tough times in the wake of the recession. Business Mentors NZ, says between 1st April 2009 and 31st March 2010, 2,385 new clients applied for a mentor. Volunteer mentors carried out 8, 972 mentoring sessions, a 44% [...]
May 28th, 2010
Consultancy Deloitte says the task of adjusting business systems to account for a rise in GST will be a bigger job, and thus potentially costlier, than expected. The Computer Society says some businesses will need entirely new software packages. Deloitte says companies need to find out where GST “touches” their systems. Some are looking at [...]
May 26th, 2010
The NZ Institute’s latest recipe for boosting NZ’s economic fortunes is boosting skills. It says labour productivity - output per hour worked - is the most significant driver of a nation’s GDP per capita. NZ performs relatively poorly on measures of labour productivity, ranking 22nd of 30 OECD countries, whereas Aust ranks 13th. The NZ [...]
May 21st, 2010
US Demand for food safety products in the United States is expected to rise 6.7% a year until 2014. The US food processing segment accounted for 70% of total demand for food safety products last year. FoodProcessing.com says the largest share of food safety product demand will stem from the meat industry, with disinfection and [...]
May 21st, 2010
In a challenge to National’s business friendly credentials, a new survey by software company MYOB has found NZ business owners strongly oppose several of the proposed changes likely in the budget and are struggling with the current regulatory environment, with almost a third unhappy with the support of the Govt overall.
The MYOB Business Monitor has [...]
May 19th, 2010
Prime Minister John Key’s announcement science and innovation will be at the heart of next week’s Budget is a positive step forward, say business and manufacturing industry leaders, but the biggest challenge will be commercialising the research for the benefit of New Zealand.
Businesses are looking for the focus to be changed away from research on [...]
May 14th, 2010
Peter Sherwin, a business adviser for accounting firm Grant Thornton NZ, warns while Emerging Markets are leading the world out of recession, NZ businesses need to be well prepared and targeted before they engage with them. He says for NZ companies to reap the undoubted benefits, they have to be thoroughly prepared and with a [...]
May 14th, 2010
The latest edition of the bi-annual Regus BusinessTracker survey shows global economic growth is progressing steadily, but full recovery will not be reliably under way until December 2010. The survey’s 15,000 respondents report a higher percentage of businesses seeing revenue and profit growth than are experiencing decline. However, respondents, asked “When do you expect economic [...]
May 12th, 2010
Australian company tax cuts give NZ some breathing space. The Henry tax review had recommended the corporate tax rate be slashed to 25% but the Aust Govt is only dropping the rate from 30 to 28% by 2014. This gives the NZ Govt time to think about what we need to do to be [...]
May 7th, 2010
Businesses worried over electricity supply security will be pleased Transpower has been given approval from the Electricity Commission to proceed with a $170m upgrade to the national grid between the Waitaki and Clutha river systems. It means big new wind and hydro-electricity project proposals in the lower South Island will be able to feed seamlessly [...]
May 7th, 2010
Pressure on the Govt to drop NZ’s ETS is likely to increase with revelations the Aust Govt has shelved its emissions trading scheme for at least three years. It has been dropped to defuse Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s “great big new tax” attack in this year’s election campaign. The scheme has been dropped from the [...]
May 5th, 2010
Despite a Free Trade deal being negotiated with India, South Asian countries - India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan - are pretty much off the radar for our exporters and importers. A study by the Asia NZ Foundation says businesses have so far failed to take advantage of developing trade potential in [...]
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