Biz News Flash

China trade buoys confidence of New Zealand firms

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-14 16:04
Large Medium Small

WELLINGTON -- Ninety percent of New Zealand's privately owned businesses are expecting positive growth in the next year partly thanks to significant optimism in trade with China, according to the 2011 ANZ Privately-Owned Business Barometer released Tuesday.

The survey found 34 of the country's privately-owned businesses were operating internationally and another 12 percent aspired to expand offshore.

Related readings:
China trade buoys confidence of New Zealand firms Air New Zealand increases flights to China
China trade buoys confidence of New Zealand firms China holds promise for New Zealand tech sector
China trade buoys confidence of New Zealand firms China, New Zealand vow to foster ties
China trade buoys confidence of New Zealand firms China signs currency swap deal with New Zealand

About 29 percent already had sales to China and 61 percent of them expected those sales to increase in the next three years, the survey found.

Although Australia, India, North America and Vietnam were the top markets where businesses anticipated increasing their operations in the next three years, "Australia, China and India are the markets that are most frequently indicated as the markets that businesses aspire to be in," said the report.

New Zealand business owners were demonstrating their resilience through the recession and the Christchurch earthquakes, said ANZ managing director for the commercial and agriculture sectors Graham Turley.

"Stiff competition for households' disposable dollar remains a concern for businesses all along the supply chain," said Turley.

"As a result, managing costs, actively engaging customers and actively managing debtors and cash flow will continue to dominate the business environment. We expect the Canterbury (earthquake) rebuild and influx of international visitors for Rugby World Cup 2011 will also give businesses a boost," he said.

"For the most part, business owners are optimistic 90 percent of business owners are expecting positive growth in the next year, while 85 percent expect growth of 5 percent or more in the next three years.

"However, the recovery is not impacting evenly across the sector. While most are driving for growth, around one in 10 are anticipating negative growth in the next 12 months."

The survey also showed skills shortages were emerging with 37 percent indicating availability of people and skills as being a main concern, compared with 34 percent in 2010.

About half of all business owners said they wanted to spend less time in their business and 22 percent of business owners said balancing family and business was an issue, compared with 10 percent last year.

分享按钮