You searched , Opinion, Media for "" and got 1209 results
In the Prime Minister’s recent State of the Nation speech that marked the starting line of this year’s election race, John Key’s major announcement was a $360m package, over four years, to build four new teacher roles. A policy that has seen widespread support across the education sector and among the public, it would see the promotion of 6,000 teachers in a workforce of 50,000. Read more
Wellington (31 January 2014): New Zealand’s relative attractiveness as an investment destination has slumped in the last 10-15 years according to Capital Doldrums: How Globalisation is Bypassing New Zealand, a report released by The New Zealand Initiative. Done well, foreign direct investment (FDI) creates jobs, usefully supplements domestic savings and further enhances the host country’s competitiveness by introducing leading-edge technologies, management expertise and access to overseas markets and expertise. Read more
Consider this. New Zealand has sound institutional arrangements and according to the OECD, best practice policy settings. Read more
When 2,300 business leaders and government officials met for the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong this week, they were asked to vote on what they saw as the greatest threat to the world economy. Opinions were divided between troubles in emerging markets (52 per cent) and the withdrawal of monetary stimulus by the US Federal Reserve (32 per cent). Read more
Wellington (9 Dec 2013): To lift students’ academic achievement, New Zealand needs to take heed of how countries with high performing education systems have turned teaching into a profession. That is the message of the think tank’s latest report Around the World: The Evolution of Teaching as a Profession, a comparative study that examines how Singapore, Germany, Finland, England, Canada and Australia are focusing on teachers to deliver better educational outcomes. Read more
Healthy competition is a key driver of efficiency gains. It forces businesses to focus on meeting customer needs better than anyone else. Read more
This year, HSBC asked over 7,000 ex pats in 37 countries how they felt about the attractiveness of their host countries from a financial, quality of life and child-raising perspective. The results – many of which may seem surprising – were released early this month. Read more
It was disappointing to see the New Zealand Wind Energy Association fire a broadside at the government this week, claiming pro-fossil fuel policy settings are leaving our economy behind in a world increasingly dominated by renewables. The opinion piece suggested we need to look to countries like Germany, which is on track to generate 30 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Read more
Oscar Wilde once suggested that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”, but had he wanted to describe the business of art he would have probably turned to the science of economics. At face value, it would seem art and economics have very little in common, but upon second glance, the apparently fickle nature of the art market is well explained by economic rationale. Read more
Simon Cowan, at last weekend’s Liberty & Society conference, addressed the pressing issue of Australia’s ballooning federal expenditure and the huge economic and social impact this will have if spending isn’t curbed soon. The elephant in the room that Cowan, a research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, is referring to is Australia’s dwindling economic growth, an ageing population and the rapidly rising healthcare and pension costs associated with the demographic shift. Read more