China Forestry Purchase Wrong
Richard Prosser MP
Spokesperson
for Primary Industries
1 May 2013
China Forestry Purchase Wrong
New Zealand First says the Overseas
Investment Office (OIO) approval of the sale of the New
Zealand Super Fund's forestry assets to the Chinese
Government is an appalling example of everything that is
wrong with National's approach to growing the
economy.
Primary Industries spokesman Richard
Prosser says the sale would not create one single job in New
Zealand, and would perpetuate the unsustainable practice of
this country being an exporter of unprocessed bulk
commodities.
"The purchase of New Zealand forests
by the Chinese Government is not foreign investment; it's a
transfer of wealth.
"They won't build any new
sawmills, they won't build any new particle board mills,
they will simply continue to export bulk logs for processing
in China.
“The export of raw logs has increased
under this Government by 10 per cent since 2009.
“These are logs that should be processed in New
Zealand, by New Zealand workers so that the wealth generated
is kept in this country.
"The primary sector is
the engine room of the economy, and right now we are giving
most of its value away to foreigners. This unsustainable
waste of wealth and resources will send us broke and must
not be allowed to continue," says Mr Prosser.
ENDS