Think smart and aim high, region told

Will training more tradies and encouraging locals to head out for brunch be enough to save the Canterbury economy?

With borders closed to visitors and the Covid-19 crisis costing businesses and jobs, there are calls for the region to do more to revive its economy. Tourism brought $4.9 billion into the region last year, supporting 8800 businesses and almost 70,000 jobs, and is directly responsible for 16.4 per cent of its economy, according to government data.

But the region’s biggest earner was its $10.2b of annual exports including $3.1b of dairy products. Other strong sectors are manufacturing ($3.7b), construction ($3.1b), and professional, scientific and technical services ($2.6m).

‘‘Supernode’’ sectors with global growth opportunities for Canterbury have already been identified by economic development and promotional agency ChristchurchNZ.

They are health tech, aerospace and future transport, food fibre and agritech, and hi-tech services.

Christchurch entrepreneur Ben Kepes — owner of technology companies Raygun and Diversity and clothing maker Cactus Outdoor — is one of those calling for a rethink. He would like to see more people studying and working in science and technology.

‘‘Lets shift from non-productive education, to productive education, that would be a transformational change,’’ Kepes said.

Gear such as Cactus’ robotic cutters give activities like apparel manufacturing the potential to become core rather than niche industries in Canterbury, he said.

‘‘I think there’s massive potential. What New Zealand does well is grow grass and wool, innovate, and solve problems — you can put all that together. We don’t need cheap labour.

‘‘We should apply technology to every industry, and the way to do that is have a skilled workforce.’’

Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, director of research group the Centre for Informed Futures and formerly chief science advisor to the prime minister, said New Zealand had ‘‘a once-in-a-generation’’ opportunity and needed to think both apolitically and long-term.

‘‘We have to look at a high-value, low-volume tourism — what we had before was never going to be sustainable.’’ With climate change, regions such as Canterbury would become drought-prone and must rethink agriculture, he said. ‘‘We can’t go on having a heavy environmental footprint. But that’s easier to say than to do, and we’ve got to think strategically.’’

Gluckman co-authored a report on the economy released this week, suggesting that a Covid-free New Zealand would attract overseas companies to bring people, ideas and investment.

The report urged more spending on research and development, and said structural changes were needed to boost foreign investment.

Gluckman said added investment in higher education and cutting-edge technologies was needed to create a knowledge economy. Universities needed a positive mindset instead of retrenching.

‘‘We need a substantial reset, that means moving away from business as usual.’’

Ashburton company New Zealand Sock Co has brought production back from China after investing in new technology. The company uses merino, possum fibre and a Kiwi-invented wool blend, and said it can now make products in Canterbury no dearer than in China. One global company investing in New Zealand is Microsoft, which on May 6 said it would establish its first data centre in the country to boost cloud services. The company said it ‘‘aims to fuel new growth that will accelerate digital transformation opportunities across New Zealand’’.

The Warehouse founder and philanthropist Sir Stephen Tindall has called for New Zealand to launch itself as a major data centre hub powered by clean energy. Tindall said that instead of ‘‘fighting this to protect outdated industries and business models’’, New Zealand should prepare ‘‘for a world led by AI data and machine learning’’.