John Walley - Policy and Prosperity

5:30pm, Connolly Hall, Guildford Terrace, Wellington. Economic strategy has separated into two broad camps, largely driven by the underlying culture. The Anglosphere have followed a belief in the primacy of markets, smaller governments, lower taxes and policy emphasis on their domestic non-traded sectors.Down this path tradable sectors shrink bereft of policy support and investment. Some still developing economies and some developed economies followed a different path, choosing expansion in their value added traded sectors as important to the long term development of their economies. To underpin this culture there is a need to keep their manufacturing and tradable sectors strong. What they have in common is the belief, backed by policy, that a strong value added tradable sector based on competitive advantage is vital for economic success as competitive advantage builds added value from imagination, skills and capability.