Nick Leggett: Infrastructure NZ CEO on the Government making a greater push for foreign investment

A greater push for foreign investment in national infrastructure is being warmly received by the sector.  

The Government's unveiled plans for a two-day international summit next month where it's inviting 100 global investment leaders.  

It plans to highlight investment opportunities, hint at policy changes, and market growing industries.  

Infrastructure New Zealand Chief Executive Nick Leggett says the Government's aware it can't fill the infrastructure deficit on its own.  

He says foreign investment is a way of helping while making infrastructure perform better. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
So the Prime Minister means business and we know this
because he says it every time he talks growth. Growth, growth, growth, growth,
growth growth. His latest announcement about growth is a two
day summit to entice interest in New Zealand projects. One
hundred world high profile investors, business leaders and construction companies
are expected to visit next month. Here's the PM. We

(00:25):
want people from all corners of the globe to know
that there's now a culture of saying yes in New Zealand,
yes to investment, yes to innovation, and yes to getting
stuff done. So Infrastructure New Zealand CEO Nick Leggett joins
me this morning. Come morning to you. Nick. Hello, have
you been invited?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I told Climb the target at the Target audience here.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Well, you're there to talk. I thought that your whole
job was to talk up New Zealand and infrastructureing and
surely as infrastructure in New Zealand, you want some of
these overseas investors coming in to help you out.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, I think what's important is that this is the
kind of a vent that shows that New Zealand is
open to business and that we are welcoming of people
who can help us build more infrastructure. Infrastructure you, as
we often talk about Andrew, is an enabler to not

(01:15):
just economic growth but also social progress. We've got a
big deficit in this country. We know we need more
transport infrastructure, we need schools, hospitals and also if you
think about water, there's a massive gaping hole there as well.

(01:36):
So across the board we need to invest. And when
you think about projects that we talk about here, the
missing link is often the funding. Where is the money
coming from? And we've had we've gotten into this habit
of openly planning and putting together business cases, but the
money sort of side of things is what kills it.

(01:58):
In Auckland, light rails a good example, and if you
think about it, let's get well moving. But we talk
big and we don't deliver and that has to change.
And so I think the Prime Minister's got it right
in terms of actually who are the people that can
help inject some funding but also bring some other expertise
so we do infrastructure better. And we know we have

(02:21):
a new culture of not just funding but actually building.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
That's why I asked you are you going do we
need to know who's coming to figure out how effective
this summit might be because if we're inviting the wrong people,
if the wrong people are not coming, the right people
are not coming, then it's then it's just virtue signaling.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well, I mean, I think that it's about it's a
new habit that we have to get into, right, It's
not all going to be fixed in one two day summer.
But what we need to know, I think more importantly
is do we have projects that are ready to be
funded and built and once people actually show interest in

(03:02):
New Zealand, are the policy settings right? And so I
think there's still work to do there. And I think
that what we'd be more interested in is that something
comes out of the summer and that there's an ongoing
interest in the country, not just for two days in March,
but next year, in five years time, so we can
really build that effective pipeline that we know we need

(03:25):
to build. We get the efficiencies out of actually having
more than one project on the garden and that ongoing pipeline,
because that's the best way for New Zealand to overcome
all the challenges it's got. We don't build infrastructure well here,
we don't line the funding up, we don't line the
projects up there's also I want to make this really clear,
it's not just about foreign direct investment. There is capital

(03:49):
in New Zealand that is keen to invest if you
think can we savor ewe Mardi. There are a whole
lot of opportunities and we've got to be open to
all of them if we're going to get our infrastructure
builds done.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Nick Legantt, I thank you for your time. Nick Leggantt
is the CEO of Infrastructure in New Zealand. And yes,
we can invite the people, but do we have the
projects ready to go? Do we have the infrastructure ready
to go? Do we have the plans that we can
say to these people, this is what we're thinking about.
Do you want to be part of it? And that's
all on the government.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
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