International comparisons

The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010[33] ranks New Zealand 20th out of 133 countries in terms of its competitiveness index with a score of 5 (out of a possible 7). In terms of infrastructure (one of the 12 pillars measured as contributing to competitiveness), New Zealand ranks 35th with a score of 4.6. These compare to 24th (overall) and 42nd (for infrastructure) in 2008-2009.

Figure 6: New Zealand's global competitiveness and infrastructure score and ranking

Source: World Economic Forum: Global Competitiveness Reports 2006-2007 to 2009-2010

Areas reducing our overall ranking (that is, below our overall ranking of 20^th) included seven of the eight infrastructure measures: quality of overall infrastructure (45); quality of roads (43); quality of railroad infrastructure (37); quality of port infrastructure (22); available seat kilometres* (30); quality of electricity supply (53); and telephone lines* (26).[34] Quality of air transport infrastructure (17) was the sole infrastructure ranking that exceeded the overall result.

Figure 7: New Zealand's global competitiveness infrastructure survey ratings

Source: World Economic Forum: Global Competitiveness Reports 2006-2007 to 2009-2010

The other more notable areas of relative under performance were: macroeconomic stability;[35] market size;[36] as well as a number of other sub-measures including: hiring and firing practices (90); brain drain (84); local supplier quantity (83); nature of competitive advantage (70); FDI[37] and technology transfer (67); and business impact of rules on FDI (61). The areas of higher relative performance were: diversion of public funds, judicial independence; ethical behaviour of firms; strength of auditing and reporting standards; protection of shareholder interests; business impact and incidence* of malaria; the number of procedures* and time required* to start a business; agricultural policy costs; firing costs*; and strength of investor protection*.

The study showed that inadequate supply of infrastructure was the second most problematic factor for doing business (with 18% of responses selecting it among the five most problematic factors) following access to finance (23%) and ahead of inefficient government bureaucracy (12.3%) and tax rates (12.2%). This is similar to previous years.

IMD's 2009 World Competitiveness Yearbook ranks New Zealand 15th out of 57 countries in terms of overall competitiveness (up from 18 the year before), at 21st in terms of infrastructure (up from 22 in 2008 and 23 in 2007).[38] Among the 15 biggest improvements was the number of mobile telephone subscribers per 1000 inhabitants, while the 15 biggest declines included the government budget deficit/surplus as a percentage of GDP, and survey results for the availability of credit, venture capital and funding for technological development.

In terms of infrastructure, the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2009 includes the following among New Zealand's strengths (with ranking in parentheses): fixed telephone tariffs (1), the number of internet users per 1000 people (9), and the number of computers per 1000 people (11). The following weaknesses are cited: communications technology (voice and data) meets business requirements (57), environmental laws and compliance do not hinder the competitiveness of businesses (56), and information technology skills are readily available (54), as well as mobile tariffs (45) and internet bandwidth speed per internet user (38).[39]

Later in this document, the section on transport discusses Auckland's congestion in comparison to Brisbane and how New Zealand compares to the OECD in terms of road fatalities.

The section on Telecommunications includes information on broadband uptake and subscribers per 1000 of population compared to the OECD.