Otago-Southland Employers Association chief executive Virginia Nicholls released the BusinessNZ-Deloitte Election Survey to the Otago Daily Times, saying the regions earned much revenue and wealth for New Zealand.
Many tourism and export businesses were located in the regions. However, regional areas did not receive the same funding levels as cities.
Infrastructure servicing regional tourism — roads, parks, parking, utilities, sanitation and public toilets — was particularly needed.
"More fundamentally, businesses surveyed say there is a need for an economic development strategy for regional New Zealand as some regions lag far behind New Zealand in business and job growth."
Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed wanted an economic development strategy for the regions, she said.
Business leaders also complained about the lack of skills, saying education and skills were important for business.
Many companies said the education sector was not delivering the technical and other skills needed for their business and not enough was being done by the education system to address skill shortages.
Mrs Nicholls said as a result, many businesses were reliant on migrant labour and would not want to see immigration unnecessarily curtailed.
There was a difference of opinion among businesses on whether Immigration NZ was succeeding in filling skill gaps and whether it was letting the right amount of skilled migrants into New Zealand.
The survey also showed businesses believed the Resource Management Act needed attention, she said.
The Act continued to bring difficulties for business. The RMA authorised local councils to develop district plans to govern development in local areas. But unfortunately, it did not give firm enough guidance on developing plans. As a result, many plans were overly detailed and prescriptive, restricting property rights, business development and growth, Mrs Nicholls said.
Restrictive planning on some areas had contributed to housing shortages and increased house prices.
"The RMA was meant to enable development but over 25 years has largely served to restrict it. As a result, business is now calling for it to be fixed or replaced."
Ongoing investment in modern infrastructure was needed for business to flourish, she said.
Transport infrastructure was important. Companies would like to see more investment to ease traffic congestion and help businesses efficiently transport their goods to market. Investment in phone, post and broadband infrastructure was also needed for effective business communications.
Businesses would like to see great investment in new infrastructure, including intelligent transport systems and they supported the use of public-private partnerships (PPPs) and joint ventures to build modern infrastructure supporting growth, Mrs Nicholls said.
Employment issues this year included employment agreements, holiday pay and the living wage.
Employment agreements had come to the fore since the recent amendment to the Employment Relations Act requiring all businesses to have written employment agreements.
Employers were not supportive of the undue focus on collective employment agreements in the ERA, preferring the productivity and flexibility benefits of individual agreements, she said.
The Holidays Act had proved a problem for some employers in the state sector after allegations of widespread under-calculations of holiday pay.
Many employers in the private sector said the Holidays Act was difficult to interpret although the majority surveyed said the Act was workable.
Businesses needed clear views on tax, Mrs Nicholls said.
There was wide support for the current New Zealand tax structure which was broad based, "reasonably flat" and had few exemptions.
There was little support for increasing the top rate of tax or for a capital gains tax. A slim majority of companies would like business tax cut to 20%.
