New Zealand, a great place to do business
- At 30%, the corporate tax is lower than or equal to most developed countries’.
- Our GST is only 12.5%, in most developed countries it is 15-25%.
- The economy has grown every year for a decade
- Inflation has averaged below 3% for over 20 years
- Workforce participation is 68%, very high by international standards.
- ACC provides no-fault income insurance, meaning businesses to not have to go to massive expense insuring themselves against litigation by injured workers and hiring lawyers to defend themselves.
- The RMA provides a cheap resource approval process, under which only 0.5% of applications are denied.
- Ease of doing business is New Zealand is second in the world only to Singapore.
- This is the least corrupt country in the world.
- Corporate profits were up 60.5% in just six years from 1999 to 2005.
- Only 0.54% of businesses failed last year.
If there’s one problem being a businessman in New Zealand today it’s this: years of growth mean unemployment is very low and since supply is constrained the price of labour is rising: wages are climbing. What is spent on wages can’t be kept for profits.
Despite having business conditions amongst the best in the world, all business leaders can do is whine that wage rises for working kiwis are ‘corrosive for profit growth‘. Small wonder, then, that the party of businessmen, National, has opposed every law that increases incomes and work rights, moans about rising labour costs (code for wages), and would ‘love to see wages drop‘.