Boosting Science, Innovation and Technology in Auckland - Hon. Judith Collins, MP

Fittingly hosted in GridAKL’s Futures Lab on 19 July, the talk by Minister Collins traversed a wide range of topics, from the prevailing economic conditions (characterised as being tougher than the 2008 GFC) to the need for direct flights to Denver, Colorado and altering laws to facilitate gene technologies.

Minister Collins aspires to New Zealand being an exporter of science, innovation and technology and talked about the importance of promoting our capabilities to the world, such as our leadership in geothermal energy projects), and travelling to large markets to do so.  The Minister also talked about capturing digital nomads via more favourable immigration settings, reflecting a focus on addressing regulatory barriers, as opposed to dispensing grants – a recurrent theme.

The ensuing Q & A session was facilitated by AcademyEx founder and CfA board member Frances Valintine.  Selected soundbites:

• Singapore has a commitment to be brilliant. Do we collectively aspire to NZ being a really wealthy country?
• We ned to move beyond 97% of our companies being SME’s (ie: less than 50 employees).
• The importance of boosting graduate confidence and sparking entrepreneurship.
• Dunedin has positioned itself as a digital hub (eg: Sir Ian Taylor’s Animation Research). Arguably Auckland is unique in the NZ context as the only city of critical size to get certain things done but doesn’t present aggregated sector capability to the international market.
• The last innovation strategy was developed in 2012. We’re overdue for an updated strategy we can all get behind.