Overseas investment changes welcome

Straterra welcomes the Coalition Government’s proposed changes to the Overseas Investment Act, says chief executive Josie Vidal.

“Mining is very capital intensive so overseas investment is particularly important to the New Zealand mining sector as a provider of capital that just isn’t available here, as well as in providing access to new expertise, technology, and links to global distribution chains,” Vidal says.

“We agree with the Government that New Zealand needs to attract more overseas investment.

“Reducing the regulatory burden to investment in mining and mineral processing will help New Zealand unlock our endowment of critical minerals.

“We support fast-tracking the assessment process and introducing a government policy statement (GPS) mechanism.

“We are certainly seeing renewed interest internationally in investing in New Zealand mining and New Zealand was viewed more favourably than in recent years in the Fraser Institute Survey of Mining Companies, which ranks jurisdictions worldwide based on their overall investment attractiveness, the attractiveness of their mining policy, and their geological attractiveness.

“Enabling governments to signal their policy stance using a GPS has a lot of merit. Because of the long lead time required for mining investments, a cross-party approach for attracting investment is needed – at least as much as is possible. A GPS is preferable to successive government’s making disruptive changes to overseas investment settings.

“We will scrutinise the proposals and provide feedback to the Government and may have more recommendations to make.”

Straterra is the industry association representing New Zealand’s minerals and mining sector.