Share of the pie

The business activities of this placid South Pacific nation of four million, just west of the international date line, barely register elsewhere: America is logging off for the day, Europe is heading to bed and the neighbouring markets of Asia are stirring in theirs,” writes Monocle’s Tim Hume. “Yet New Zealand’s government now believes that its time zone could become an economic lifeline. The hope is that, combined with a raft of assets that include the country’s transparency, political stability, strong property rights, ease of doing business and, in the longer term, its quality of life, New Zealand’s time zone could prove an attractive proposition to the financial giants that sell managed funds — those huge collective investment schemes — into Asia.” Auckland-based “steely former diplomat” Craig Stobo, is the man behind the proposal. ”We’ve got all the essentials here but we have never sold it as a package to anyone,” Stobo says. Stobo “first presented the proposal at a ‘jobs summit’ held in the wake of the financial crisis. The government was impressed, and appointed him head of the international funds services development group tasked with finding a way to make it happen. New Zealand is well aware of its limits in size and capability. The objective is not slaying giants like Ireland, nor supplanting Australia as the region’s hub for fund management. A small slice of a very large pie will suffice.”