Few ‘clusters’

Oliver’s Aussie recipe flops

Twenty-seven years after the Porter Project recommended New Zealand should pursue a “clusters” strategy to develop its manufacturing base, a government study of the manufacturing sector has found there are “few economically significant manufacturing clusters in New Zealand”. Without mentioning the government’s commercialisation accelerator agency, Callaghan Innovation, by name, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s New Zealand Manufacturing Sector Report suggests that “new institutions may need to be established, or existing institutions modified”. Economic Development Minister David Parker launched the report, the first such overview of the sector by MBIE since it began publishing sector reports in 2013 under the previous Government, in Auckland yesterday afternoon. Jamie Oliver’s Australian restaurant group has fallen into voluntary administration, though the majority of his restaurants will continue to trade under a new owner. Administrators BDO Australia said Jamie’s Italian restaurants meet the needs of an expanding population. The global body of 189 member countries, set up to foster international monetary cooperation, says New Zealand is enjoying a “solid economic expansion” in the in Sydney, Parramatta, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide will continue to operate under new owner, Brisbane-based Hallmark Group. Jamie’s Italian in Canberra has closed. Hallmark, the owner of Brisbane Irish bar Finn McCools, bought the restaurants after the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group went into voluntary administration concluding statement of its regular ‘Article IV mission review’, with growth set to remain near or above potential. The IMF said increased government spending will offset slower residential investment and on Monday. The collapse of the celebrity chef’s Australian business comes about a year after Oliver bought the restaurants from the receivers of the failed Keystone Group. It also follows media reports that Oliver’s restaurants in the UK are in financial strife with debts totalling $A126 million.

— AAP drought-affected agricultural exports. Gross domestic product expansion will stay near 3 per cent in the near term. The IMF statement said the Crown’s fiscal position was strong and “provides space to accommodate hembry@nzherald.co.nz shaw@nzherald.co.nz holly.ryan@nzherald.co.nz the needs from strong economic and population growth”, with increased spending on infrastructure able to be ramped up further if a bigger-thanexpected tax take turned out to be structural.