The Government has released new guidance designed to make it easier for overseas investors to navigate New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Act when establishing or expanding supermarket and grocery businesses, saying the move is intended to encourage greater competition in the retail sector.
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour said the guidance, issued by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), provides investors with greater certainty by explaining which provisions of the Act apply, the tests investment proposals must satisfy, and how LINZ will assess applications.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for credible investors to establish or expand grocery retail operations in New Zealand,” Seymour said. “The more options there are for Kiwis, the more competition there is within the market. This will lead to lower prices for Kiwis at the checkout.”
The guidance forms part of broader reforms to the overseas investment regime aimed at encouraging foreign investment. Seymour said the Government had also streamlined the application process under the Act.
According to the Minister, LINZ approved 230 overseas investment transactions worth about $23.8 billion in the past financial year, the highest number of consents granted in a single year. Under recent legislative changes, decisions on most overseas investment applications—excluding residential land, farmland and fishing quota—must be made within 15 working days, with a target of five working days where possible.
LINZ says it has met the new assessment targets. Business and production forestry investments are now being approved in an average of four working days, while the average processing time across the regime has fallen from 71 working days since the current Government took office to 23 working days.
Seymour said the faster processing times would free up resources for supermarket investment applications and argued that attracting more overseas capital would support economic growth, improve productivity and create higher-paying jobs.
Image credit: Getty Images
The constant sew-saw of uni party initiatives, always discussed but rarely implemented, forms a part of the great distraction game. Keep us all going oh yeah, nah, the consultants line their greedy pockets, the prices remain unchanged.
Yes, Say-no-more, F*** off. You and your ilk had more than enough time to implement stuff like that which will never come to fruit because everyone in the beehive has to toe the globalists’ line. Deliver REAL benefit for Godzone and then maybe, MAYBE, we will vote for yoy.
Don’t forget the GST. 15% on food going straight to the Government. A commonplace $200 weekly grocery shop nets the govt $30. Multiply that by one million each week. A nice little operation.
The same applies to energy.
The higher the prices the more GST. Why would govt want to take a loss?
And then, whenever they demand it, it can be handed straight over to the oligarchs (eg. Pfizer) with zero scrutiny. And we wonder why the Kiwi Rupee is getting more worthless by the day.
We don’t want any more ‘foreign Corporations’ controlling us and ripping us off unconstitutional church parliament puppet Seymour. We want more for New Zealand by New Zealand local Co-Ops, real food sourced and grown from real grass roots sole trader farmers/growers/producers. You can take your ‘dead entities/legal fictions’ and stick em where the sun don’t shine. Back to localism.
New Zealand is Monsanto’s (et.al.) petri dish and has been for a long time. Remember Dolly? Have you ever stopped to read the labels on cropping farms?
Remove the RMA entirely as well as all the local govt bs regulations and rules and anti competitive practices (seriously – though shalt not have more than one supermarket in your suburb type rules enforced by councils) and you might see someone brave enough to pay off a few iwis so they can set up a supermarket or two.
iwi?
“I Want It”?
and u spell cuntcils wrong.
😉
I remember vague, whispered promises of removing G.S.T. from food and grocery essentials. Was I dreaming or was that on another timeline??
Not local investment, foreign investment. The selling of New Zealand continues with profits flooding off shore.
The supermarket chains have been ruthless against New Zealand citizens and their suppliers. The government must be ruthless towards supermarket chains.
Legislate to set the margins. Force sale of prime location supermarkets to organisations who are not going to rip us.