Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper came away from the Jobs Summit in Auckland yesterday positive about the Government's commitment to helping businesses survive a recession.
Mr Cooper attended the equity-raising and business-funding workshop and said it appeared an effort would be made to streamline how small and medium-sized businesses could access both funds markets.
One of the main ideas of the day was a need to reduce compliance and regulatory issues to improve the access to capital markets, he said.
There was a tremendous buy-in from the business representatives at the summit.
The theme was not so much about protecting every job, but more about creating jobs. The extreme change of global circumstances was beyond normal government expertise so why would a government not use the business sector in these times, Mr Cooper said
Job Summit ideas
•A nine-day working fortnight.
•A cycleway the length of New Zealand.
•$10,000 interest-free loans to new house buyers.
•Crisis managers to help companies in strife.
•Fund to add liquidity to the consumer finance market.
•Tax holidays for struggling businesses.
•Loan guarantees for small and medium-sized businesses.
