New infrastructure entity to help drive economic growth and wellbeing
29 August 2018
NZ Government:
A new independent entity will be established
so
New Zealand gets the quality
infrastructure investment it needs to
improve long-term economic performance and
social wellbeing,
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has announced today.
Speaking at the annual Building Nations Symposium in
Auckland, Shane
Jones said the new entity would provide greater certainty to the
industry and better advice to Ministers to ensure adequate, long-term
planning and investment happens.
“When we first came into Government, it quickly became clear that we’re
facing a major infrastructure deficit with no plan to tackle it. We’ve
struggled to get a clear picture from officials of its scale, when it
would hit us the worst and in which sectors.
“Treasury is currently unable to properly quantify the value of the
deficit we’re facing – it doesn’t hold accurate or up-to-date
information about all infrastructure projects across all sectors and
advises that agencies themselves may not necessarily know the extent of
their future capital needs.
“This is just not good enough. This Government has a firm eye on the
future and not just the next few years. We’re determined to improve
economic performance, and social and environmental wellbeing for
generations to come and getting on top of our infrastructure challenge
is key.
“That means ensuring New Zealand can make the timely and quality
investments in vital infrastructure, such as hospitals, schools,
transport networks, water and electricity. And it means being open to
innovative solutions to sourcing the capital we need.
“We’ve listened to industry and
local government – they need greater
visibility of our infrastructure needs.
“This new entity will provide that certainty so we can make the right
investments, in the right places and the right time.
“We’re already making a significant dent in our infrastructure deficit.
Net capital spending in the next five years will be more than double
that of the previous five years with the Government investing about $42
billion through to 2022.
“This is a good start, but we need to do better over the long term and
I’m confident the new infrastructure entity will help us really sharpen
our planning for the future.
“Treasury will now lead the development of the detailed policy working
alongside key industries and I’ll report back to Cabinet early next year
with options on how to structure the new organisation,” Shane Jones
said.
It is anticipated the new infrastructure entity will be operational by
late 2019.
--ENDS--
Source: New Zealand Government - www.beehive.govt.nz
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