New
Zealand
depends on foreign investment for economic development. This also applies to the
development of New
Zealand's mineral resources. For this foreign
investment to happen there must be some incentives to attract the investment.
While prospectivity is the dominant parameter considered by investors it is not
a variable that can be changed, only the perception of New Zealand's
prospectivity. Other parameters likely to be considered are sovereign risk, red
tape, green tape, land access, civil unrest, land claims, social risk, labour
relations, infrastructure and natural disasters. Regulators and political will
can vary some of these parameters.
Where
New
Zealand fits internationally can be measured by
investors' perceptions of these parameters. Following on from these perceptions
New
Zealand can be seen to have advantages in some
areas and be disadvantaged in others. How to deal with the disadvantages to give
investors confidence is not easy in the New Zealand environment where the
development of mineral resources plays a small part in an economy dominated by
agriculture. Added to this is the current global state of the minerals industry
which offers even more of a challenge to attract foreign investment to develop
New
Zealand's mineral
resources.