New Zealand government establishes Small Business Council

The Government of New Zealand has established the Small Business Council to focus on the nation’s small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

The 13-member council features business leaders from private sector organisations – such as Fonterra – tax experts, heads from the Chamber of Commerce, and academics, the NZ Herald reported.

Tenby Powell, Director of Hunter Powell Investments, and Dr Deborah Shephard, lecturer at the University of Auckland, will chair the council.

The chair will meet with members every month to follow a mandate set by Stuart Nash, the nation’s Minister for Small Business, aiming to feed the government direction to improve the industry.

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“The Council will help the government develop a strategy to drive improvement and innovation in the small business sector,” stated Stuart Nash.

“Significant shifts in technology, the global trading environment, and domestic policy settings always present challenges for businesses.”

“The time has come to establish a specialist group to consider some of these strategic issues over a longer timeframe, and pull together advice from a range of institutions and practitioners.”

“I have purposely cast the net wide for the members of the council and deliberately sought out some of New Zealand's largest enterprises to play a role, in recognition of the connections and networks that are vital to helping small businesses thrive.”