New Zealand is ranked N01 among 190 economies in the ease of doing business, according to the latest World Bank annual ratings. For the second year in a row, New Zealand has claimed top spot in the World Bank Doing Business 2018 report for ease of doing business, ahead of 190 other economies.

Business Confidence
Towards the end of 2018 Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described plummeting confidence as a "huge flashing neon sign" and announced a Business Advisory Council led by Air New Zealand chief executive Chris Luxon to help address it. They have now released the four priority areas the Council will provide the Coalition Government with advice and support as it works on building a productive, sustainable and inclusive economy that improves the wellbeing of New Zealanders.

The four priority areas are:

• Building tomorrow’s skills
• Accelerating our regions
• Attracting high quality investment
• Unleashing our SMEs

As you may or may not remember Small Business Minister Stuart Nash announced prior to this in August 2018 the appointment of another 13-member Small Business Council to advise the government on strategic opportunities for improving the performance of the sector.

It has a year in which to deliver something although to date all that has come out is a request by the Minister to have the council justify its own existence at an estimated 135k a year for meetings in comparison to other government expenditure it is nothing. However if all it does is to justify its own existence then we may all be a little disappointed    For more information

Business growth in 2019.

With a lot of talk at the end of 2018 around business confidence with the media feeding off it every day, most of us were thinking of it becoming a self-perpetuating event. Apparently towards the end of 2018 small businesses of which there are nearly 500,000, in NZ have reported doing well despite the efforts of the media to convince us all otherwise.
Small business makes up 97 per cent of New Zealand businesses and employing over 600,000 Kiwis. However if you own a small business you can be forgiven in thinking Government only thinks about big business though.

What is our Government doing to help the small business?

Govt targets anti-competitive behaviour
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi has announced the start of public consultation on

Measures to strengthen the law protecting consumers and small business from anti-competitive behaviour by powerful firms which is good news given some of the players out there. However unless your dealing with the likes of Supermarkets or big distributors you may not be that concerned.For more information

Mastercard and Business NZ launch of ‘Staying Safe Online’ for New Zealand Businesses

Small business the focus of Australian talks
There is a clear opportunity to streamline business-to-business transactions both within New Zealand and in trans-Tasman commerce,” Mr Nash says.