National Office - Frequently Asked Questions about NZTE

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Export New Zealand is often asked about New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, the government organisation which helps exporters and small businesses. Export NZ, which is a private sector organisation, often works with NZTE, for example presenting the New Thinking breakfasts and working to promote Export Year 07.

Below is a list of frequently asked questions about NZ Trade and Enterprise.


Does NZTE work with small exporters?

NZTE provides two types of services – generic services and customised services.

Our generic services include high quality resources and information via the web and a range of training from Exporter Education through to management capability.

Our customised services are focused on companies with high growth potential and with an aspiration to grow internationally. They might be of any size, but what NZTE is most interested in is their capacity for high growth.

In terms of grant programmes, there is no lower limit on turnover for firms wanting to apply.

As a guide to the range of high-growth potential firms NZTE works with, the 2006 client profile of these firms is below:

• 46% of firms have a turn-over of less than $3 million, with 42% between $3 million and $20 million. 12% with revenues $20 million and above. Total revenues ranged from zero to $51 million.
• 51% of these firms were established in the last 10 years and nearly a quarter (23%) are more than 20 years old.
• 91% of these companies make sales in offshore markets, with 57% having made their first offshore sales within the last ten years.
• For 42%, revenue generated offshore comprises more than 50% of their total revenue


How does NZTE prioritise what markets it will be in?

NZTE has thoroughly researched what markets it should be and its assessment and prioritisation is based on a range of factors:

• opportunities that match with New Zealand capability;
• interest and commitment amongst exporters in using NZTE services in particular markets;
• the impact of intervention by NZTE (for example, the level of difficulty for New Zealand; role of government in business relations; level of regulatory barriers; differences in business culture);
• New Zealand’s ability to prospect non-traditional markets from bases in traditional markets;
• and where New Zealand’s future economic wealth is likely to come from.

Currently the centres of wealth concentration in the world are the United States, the EU (primarily western Europe, with Germany being the largest), Japan. New Zealand needs to remain in as close contact as possible with emerging trends in the following countries:

• Our closest neighbours - Australia, the Pacific Islands, South-East Asia, Korea, Taiwan.
• Emerging new major powers in the global economy - notably China and India, and potentially Brazil and Russia.
• Islands of wealth and innovation - eg Singapore, UAE.


How is NZTE funding broken down between funding for onshore and offshore activities?

NZTE spends about 60% of its operating budget offshore, for the benefit of exporters. The remaining 40% is spent onshore. This proportion has been maintained throughout NZTE’s existence.

In addition, 50% of NZTE’s grant funding goes towards assisting New Zealand businesses with international market development. In 2007/08 this will increase to 60% of NZTE’s grant funding.

This reflects a steady increase since NZTE’s inception in grant funding available to help New Zealand businesses into international market development, from $7.6m in 2003/04 to over $60m in 2007/08.

In addition money spent onshore goes directly to helping exporters – such as money spend on the Exporter Education Programme or on Capability Building grants for companies that export.


Does NZTE support trade shows?

Helping New Zealand firms attend trade shows successfully is an important part of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE)'s work, but some of its support changed from 1 July.

The main programme that supports firms to attend trade shows is NZTE’s market development grant scheme, although NZTE also supports attendance through its sector projects.

Total funding for the market development grant scheme has been increased several times since the scheme was introduced, including an extra $87.8 million over four years as part of Budget 2007 which brings ongoing annual funding to $53.6 million.

Firms applying to use market development funding to attend a trade show need to show how attendance fits into their larger market development strategy and they need to commit a minimum of $20,000 of their own funding towards that strategy.

NZTE's Enterprise Networks funding (available to three or more firms) has been another programme NZTE has used to support firms to attend trade shows in the past. However, an evaluation of the Enterprise Networks programme by the Ministry of Economic Development last year recommended closing the programme from 1 July 2007, and for NZTE to continue to support companies' participation in offshore events through other programmes such as the market development scheme.

As with the Enterprise Networks programme, the market development scheme is open to groups of companies – although the criteria are slightly different as this collaborative funding is designed to help smaller companies work with larger companies.

For more information about these changes contact your NZTE client manager or the Business Services Team on 0800 555 888. More detail about the market development grant scheme can be found at www.nzte.govt.nz/edg


What are the differences between NZTE and what Trade New Zealand used to do?

Unlike Trade NZ, NZTE is not an export promotion agency but an economic development agency

Export promotion or trade promotion agencies (and Austrade is a good example) have essentially one key role – to work with individual firms to assist them export.

NZTE’s mandate is much wider. NZTE’s role is to stimulate economic growth in a number of ways by:

• helping boost the value of export earnings;
• helping build capability across all NZ firms, not just exporters;
• working collaboratively with New Zealand firms and sectors to identify commercial opportunities which offer significant economic returns for business in offshore markets
• strengthening regional economies;
• attracting offshore investors;
• promoting New Zealand as an attractive trade and investment destination under New Zealand New Thinking and;
• encouraging New Zealanders to value entrepreneurship and business success.

By comparison, Australian federal and state agencies work with regional economies and Invest Australia, along with numerous state equivalents, attract foreign direct investment into Australia.

Even with NZTE’s change of emphasis, New Zealand exporters are still well served with support compared to their Australian counterparts. A crude dollar-for-dollar comparison per exporter (adjusted for exchange rates) reveals that for every dollar of grant funding available to Australian exporters, $1.33 is available to New Zealand exporters. More than NZ$60m is available in grant funding for around 12,000 NZ exporters while NZ$166m is available in grant funding for around 42,000 Australian exporters.

In addition, NZTE’s investment in offshore activity – through support of both our offshore network and direct support to firms (including support of trade fairs) - is almost three times that of Australia on a per exporter basis.