- Hon David Seymour
Associate Minister of Finance David Seymour is encouraged by significant improvements to overseas investment decision timeframes, and the enhanced interest from investors as the Government continues to reform overseas investment.
"There were about as many foreign direct investment applications in July and August as there was across the six months prior. This is an encouraging start to the work being done to bring more investment to New Zealand and grow the economy," says Mr Seymour.
"On 6 June 2024 I issued a new ministerial directive letter to Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) to make consent processing timeframes faster under the Overseas Investment Act. The directive letter contains an expectation that 80 per cent of consent applications will be processed in half the statutory timeframe.
"This means applicants can expect timeframes for most consent applications to be cut down to between 5 and 50 working days, depending on the application type.
"In order to have a strong growing economy New Zealand needs to be more welcoming to investment. I recognised that long waiting times for applications was creating uncertainty and impacting the attractiveness of investing in New Zealand. This affected New Zealand businesses that rely on overseas investment for capital or for liquidity.
"Since delegating most decision-making to LINZ and directing officials to focus on realising the benefits of overseas investment, there has been a significant improvement in processing times.
"Every consent decision received after the directive letter came into effect has been decided in under half of the statutory timeframe. Between 24 November 2021 and 14 April 2024, only 13 per cent of consent decisions were being made in half the statutory timeframe.
"There has been a large boost in foreign direct investment applications, totalling 16 across July and August, compared with 17 over the previous 6 months at an average of 2.8 per month.
"This Government is introducing a principle that we welcome investment. In order for New Zealand to retain world class public services it needs to be the preferred destination for ideas, investment, talent. This is just one way we're achieving this; we will also be rewriting the Overseas Investment Act.
"While it is early days, I am confident that this positive trend will continue. I am also pleased to see that decisions not covered by my directive, such as variations and exemptions, are also moving faster.
"Every variation application received since the letter has also been decided in half the timeframe. Before this only 40 per cent were.
"Feedback from investors has been overwhelmingly positive, and they have welcomed the changes to make the application process more efficient, while still giving the right level of scrutiny to high-risk transactions.
"LINZ still has the full statutory timeframe to process 20 per cent of consent applications, which will allow them to manage complex and higher-risk applications.
"Reduced barriers to investment from people and businesses means greater prosperity for Kiwis. If we want world-leading businesses and public services, we need the money to pay for them. We're making this happen."
Note to editors: The directive letter is available on the LINZ website: https://www.linz.govt.nz/our-work/overseas-investment-regulation/legislation-ministers-and-delegated-powers/new-ministerial-directives
A link to summary of decisions is here https://www.linz.govt.nz/our-work/overseas-investment-regulation/decisions
