The cynics say Jim Anderton received a ‘hospital pass’ when he was given the New Zealand forestry portfolio in the recent Cabinet reshuffle. But as the self-styled “game-breaker” in the impasse over the Forestry Industry Framework Agreement (FIFA), he still thinks the wood industry can be the country’s top export earner by 2020. Meanwhile, National’s forestry spokesman Brian Connell believes the minister is letting the industry bleed to death. Elizabeth Howarth reports.
The New Zealand wood industry has been thrown a lifeline by a government consistently accused of cynical disinterest in its plight and unwillingness to make economic corrections to stop the bleeding – reportedly a cool NZ$1 billion in forestry and logging losses in 2004 alone.
He turned up for the interview 20 minutes late, in beach shorts and an old polo shirt. But let’s be honest: Bryce Heard, the just-retired CEO of the Forest Research Institute, has never really looked that comfortable in a collar-and-tie.
They have no natural resources except people. They do most of their manufacturing in somebody else’s country and they are not renowned for their designs. Yet Singapore is the home of one of the world’s most dynamic furniture industries, running arguably the best international trade show in Asia – as Tony Neilson reports.
More buyers went to the Malaysian International Furniture Fair this year looking for higher quality products and more creative designs. And on at least one count, they should have left feeling happy.
In an industry already devastated by more than a decade of recession, the news doesn’t get any better as the rate of new plantation forest planting in New Zealand plummets. And Kyoto commitments may be compounding the problem, as Hugh de Lacy reports.
