An Increasing Role for Small Business in New Zealand

摘要

Major liberalization during the early 1980s transformed New Zealand into one of the most open and deregulated economies in the world. Yet the country's lack of technology-based industries made it difficult for the nation to maintain its place among the leading group of Organization for Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. There is a need to transform the economy again, away from its dependence on agricultural commodities and toward a greater reliance on modern, knowledge-based businesses. With many of the larger enterprises now owned and controlled from overseas, this transformation will require a major contribution from the country's small business sector. In May 2001, the government implemented a policy to encourage entrepreneurship, with a fund of $100 million―a substantial budget for a nation with a population of 3.8 million.