New Zealand Engineering 1999 March

Forum Summaries

Forum Summaries

Global Markets
Democracy, Technology and Progress
Engineering Governance
Venture Capital
Sustainabilty
The Future Engineering Office

Global Markets (sponsored by IBM Global Services)

By focusing on human capital development Ireland has achieved spectacular gains in growth and reducing unemployment. Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney outlined a number of policies Ireland has used to attract direct inward investment from the United States (in particular) by reducing cost structures, creating jobs which can form a "quaternary" educational facility for Irish workers. IBM Asia President James Joyce pointed out that e-business is changing the way companies sell and opens up a global market for relatively small firms and countries regardless of distance. New Zealand’s trade performance has been slipping in global terms according to IMF figures advanced by NZ Institute of Economic Research director Alex Sundakov. Mr Sundakov said that New Zealand suffered from its remoteness and still followed heritage trade patterns. Treasury secretary Alan Bollard acknowledged Irish achievement but pointed out the difference in distance and market integration Ireland has enjoyed from European Union membership. He said the Government was following a programme of reducing costs by introduction of competition. Manufacturers Federation president David Moloney said New Zealand exporters were doing well but more effort should be put into assisting smaller firms. New Zealand Herald business editor Rod Oram detected a change in political direction by the National Party on industrial policy.

Democracy, Technology and Progress (sponsored by the Centre for Advanced Engineering and Opus International)

Judge Treadwell argued that imprecise district plans with a plethora of discretionary activities were a make-work scheme for local bodies. He said both implacable objectors and developers who hid their true objectives were equally problematic for the effective operation of the Resource Management Act. Unless local bodies were prepared to be more disciplined there would be continued problems with the Act. Ministry of Research, Science and Technology policy adviser, Paul Reynolds, said that the Foresight project had identified a number of areas where genetic engineering would assist the development of competitive New Zealand industry and that these need not involve directly modifying foodstuffs. Increasingly, scientists were looking at the total environment of the crop. Phillida Bunkle however pointed to a growing blurring of the boundaries between the objectives of corporate research and state governance in promoting genetic research. She said science per se was losing its credibility with the populace and this was largely due to the perception of collusion and academic arrogance. Andrew McEwan of the National Radiation Laboratory spoke on the placement of cellular telephone base stations. He said the apparently conflicting information from scientists had been misinterpreted by the media and local groups, but the gradual resolution of the data into highly conservative standards may yet alleviate concerns. David Elms of the Centre for Advanced Engineering spoke on the perception of risk and concluded that the public needed a trusted champion. He called upon the Institution to give its code of ethics more public "teeth". The discussion could not resolve any structure which could identify how technology could be introduced democratically.

Engineering Governance (sponsored by the Worley Group)

John Norton, director of emergency management and civil defence, Department of Internal Affairs, said that civil defence had to come out of the basement and that it was important for engineers to assert themselves as asset managers in this respect at board level. Victoria University law reader Bob Dugan said while continental European companies included provision for employee stakeholder representation in boards there were no jurisdictions in the Anglo-Saxon world which broke with the notion of a company as a risk-taking legal entity. Ian Parton of Worley Group argued that engineering strategy should be consistent with business strategy and that there was no overall reason for engineers to be on boards. John Gardiner of IPENZ, however, argued that the interdependence of companies meant that society as a whole was taking a larger and larger risk on private sector linkages failing. This was reinforced by John Good of the Y2K Commission who retraced the history of the problem and the terrible habit of IT to get top level support with less than engineering standard work practices, often with calamitous results. Sharon Beder, associate professor of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Wollongong, questioned whether companies were the appropriate structure for the control of formerly state run industries. Francis Small, managing director of Tranz Rail, pointed out that boards were very aware of their responsibilities, and said there was an increasing trend for boards to appoint special subcommittees to examine engineering related issues.

Venture Capital (sponsored by Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner)