Thank you for the invitation to participate in this APEC CEO forum. It is good to see so many of you here. Indeed it was critical that the APEC Summit and this CEO forum proceed.
Our vision is to see New Zealand back in the top half of the OECD economic indicators， as we already are on most social indicators. Our aim is to lever off a talented population with many great ideas in order to build an economy driven by talent， innovation， and entrepreneurial skills.
We see the New Zealand of the future as an export-oriented economy with more globally-oriented companies operating from a New Zealand base and developing strong clusters around them. We see New Zealand developing as a top place in the world to do business because ：
· We have a highly educated and skilled workforce
· We have sophisticated infrastructure and are highly interconnected
· We have strong commitments to government， business and community partnerships
· We are a secure and stable place to live in and invest in， in every sense
· We have a fantastic physical environment for recreation and leisure
· We are culturally dynamic， and
· We are a socially inclusive and tolerant society
New Zealand is now in the process of creating conditions in which the highest levels of innovation can flourish and in which New Zealand has the capacity to create new knowledge and apply it to new and existing industries.
To achieve our goals， government is working closely with business and other stakeholders.
Our attention is on the longer term changes needed for New Zealand to maximise its opportunities. Our government's first twenty-two months in office have seen significant progress made in putting in place the building blocks for the innovative economy. We are co-ordinating policies relating to innovation， talent and skills， investment and business growth， excellence in education， and science， research， and development.
I would like to share with you some of the initiatives we are undertaking to transform our economy. They include：
· Placing huge emphasis on education. We have paid considerable attention to increasing participation in our early childhood education， which is already high by international standards. Our school sector is focusing on improving our rates of literacy and numeracy and fostering IT infrastructure and skills. Our fast IT roll-out is being made possible through strong partnerships between government， business， and schools. We are currently in the throes of a fundamental overhaul of the structure and funding of tertiary education to improve both its quality and its capacity for specialisation. We have put considerable emphasis on the emergence and fostering of centres of excellence for research at the tertiary level. There is significantly more investment in industry training.
· Taking a fresh approach to innovation with increased public funding for science and research， and providing more favourable tax treatment for research and development. We are emphasising the need to commercialise the new knowledge we generate. That has led to the development for the first time in New Zealand of business incubators， attached generally to research based institutions. The government has also established a fund to provide seed and start up capital， to be deployed in partnership with the private sector. Our new Science and Innovation Advisory Council has developed a draft New Zealand Innovation Strategy designed to position New Zealanders as innovators to the world.
