Mallard: Celebrating the rising stars of business1 March 2006
28 February 2006
Hon Trevor Mallard: Celebratingthe rising stars of business Speech to the TelecomIncubator Awards, Sky City Convention Centre,Auckland
Thank-you for the opportunity to speak at yourawards tonight.
Celebrating the emerging stars of businessand business innovation is something we should all do moreof as a country, especially as our government works towardstransforming the New Zealand economy into an export-led highvalue, highly innovative economy that can compete with thebest of them in world markets.
Business incubators are animportant part of this economic transformation.
Theycontribute by building a pipeline of exciting, innovativehigh-growth start-up and early stage businesses that canfind high value niches in the global economy, particularlyin our ICT, creative and life science sectors.
Incubatorsgive fledgling entrepreneurs an opportunity to develop theirinnovative ideas and set up new businesses in order tocommercialise them.
The reality in New Zealand is that wedo not have a sufficient number of world-class managementteams in start-ups. This is where incubators are making adifference.
Business incubation catalyses the process ofstarting and growing companies by providing entrepreneurswith the expertise, networks and tools they need to maketheir ventures successful.
And the approach works.
International research tells us that incubation can helpdiversify economies, commercialise technologies, create jobsand build wealth.
Incubation can provide New Zealand witha source of innovative, high-growth companies that will be akey driver of our knowledge-based economy.
The growth ofNew Zealand s incubators - there are now 17 incubatorsaround the country compared to just two when the programmestarted in 2001 -- is now being matched by hard results.
Incubators funded under New Zealand Trade andEnterprise s incubator programme have already successfullygraduated 98 exciting young companies.
Of these, 39 areconsidered to be high-growth, that is, they have thepotential to go on and become multi-million dollarinternational companies.
Some have already been acceptedinto New Zealand Trade and Enterprise s Beachheadsprogramme, which is also being featured in New Thinking2006.
These companies have raised almost $37 million inexternal capital to support their growth.
Last year, 157companies resident in incubators employed 743 people, andearned revenues in excess of $27 million, some of whichincluded export receipts.
Other spin-offs are alsooccurring.
Incubators are also playing a major role in thedevelopment of a vibrant angel investment market.
Submissions from the incubation industry were importantcontributors to the recently announced Seed Co-InvestmentFund, and incubator-managed angel groups have been shortlisted as Fund partners.
The growing influence ofincubation is also being seen in university campuses andresearch labs, and in Crown Research Institutes and in thewider community where the celebration of business successand entrepreneurship as a career is stimulating more andmore entrepreneurial activity.
Since 2001 when theIncubator Development Unit was established in then IndustryNew Zealand, government support has provided over $13million in grants to 19 incubators, to Incubators NZ and toworthy industry projects.
The industry has set a goal ofbeing financially independent from government.
Telecomhas recognised the benefits of partnering with theincubation industry and getting early stage access to thefuture drivers of the New Zealand economy, through being theprincipal sponsor of Incubators New Zealand. Microsoft isalso a supporting sponsor, and I'm looking forward to seeingother corporates follow their lead.
I'm very much lookingforward to visiting the Incubator Expo tomorrow to see whatthese companies are achieving.
As a country we can beproud of the fact that New Zealand does not have a problemin coming up with ideas or generating new innovations orcreating new technologies.
A barrier we have faced is incommercialising them and then taking them successfully intoglobal markets.
Incubators provide a structure to helpwith this challenge. The government is also looking intoother ways of supporting the commercialisation ofinnovation.
Incubation has developed in New Zealand as acoordinated and cohesive effort by incubators, centralgovernment, local government, educational and researchinstitutes and the private sector.
Everyone has playedtheir part and can share in the success that is evident atthe awards.
Congratulations to the incubator industry forcontinuing to set some bold targets.
And congratulationsto the award winners being announced heretonight.
ENDS
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