All in Economy
Highlights: Health concentration at the top worries me most; eight people owning more than the bottom 50 percent of the world's population is unsustainable in the long run; I believe in working towards three zeros - zero poverty, zero unemployment, and zero net carbon emission; The way to tackle unemployment and get people out of welfarism is to empower them and encourage entrepreneurship
“For turn-key projects – house and land packages, you pay a deposit upfront and the remainder when the property is complete. It's important to note that you may be able to purchase such a package with as little as 5 percent deposit. And your KiwiSaver first-home withdrawal or KiwiSaver HomeStart grant can make a part or all of your deposit,” informed Nathan Miglani, from Loan Market, while addressing the gathering at a free first-home buying seminar organised by the Christchurch-based social organisation Indian Cultural Group (ICG) on April 10. It was part of a series of informative sessions ICG organises, dealing with issues of health, finances, and women empowerment, explained Sandeep Sachdev, President of ICG.
Those who attended the recent Living Economies Expo came away energised and inspired to make change. The purpose of the event was to seed systemic change. The realisation that our systems are not working is fairly widespread: see the increasing coverage in our media of topics such as climate change, water quality, housing shortages, a failing health system, the growing divide between rich and poor, decrease in the diversity of species, questionable political leadership worldwide and of course the connector of all these issues – our current highly dysfunctional monetary system.
With the tagline as - investing and enabling New Zealand start-ups to succeed in China's market, and launched late last year, Zino Ventures marks the first Chinese Angel Fund in New Zealand. A brain-child of 18 Chinese entrepreneurs who have pooled together $2 million, the company aims to invest in up to 20 start-ups over the next three years.
Two migrant drivers based in Christchurch can now claim they are among the country’s best, after winning the top two awards at Go Bus Transport’s Bus Roadeo at the Airforce Museum in Christchurch on Saturday March 11. Raymund Llamas, who is from the Philippines and has driven buses in his home country and in Dubai, was named Go Bus Driver of the Year, and Arvinder Singh from India, won the runner-up.
Staff at tertiary education institutions are experiencing higher levels of stress, unsustainable workloads and are feeling more alienated from their jobs compared to a decade ago, according to a report published recently by the Tertiary Education Union. Titled Education Under Pressure, the report adds "increased pressure on staff to change grades, dedicate less time to teaching and change admission rules, all of which lead to lower education outcomes for students".
Eric Chuah, former head of migrant banking with ANZ, has launched Cultural Connections, New Zealand’s first social enterprise to specialise in researching migrants, is calling all migrants to join its research panels and in doing so help the country’s multicultural community groups flourish.
These include penalty for failure to provide written employment agreements, failure to keep holiday and leave records and failure to keep wage and time records. "The respondent is to pay a penalty to the Crown in the sum of $25,000 in respect of three categories of breaches of minimum code requirements, plus $71.56 to the Labour Inspectorate as reimbursement of its Authority lodgement fee," said David Appleton, member of the Employment Relations Authority, in his judgement dated December 16, 2016.
Immigration New Zealand has published the offshore student visa approval rates for 2016 on their website indicating that India had an approval rate of 46 percent with 7562 visas accepted and 8818 rejections. This easily tops the rejection numbers as the next on list is China with only 649 rejections. The country had an approval rate of 93 percent with 8194 students coming to New Zealand to study from China last year. Third and fourth on the list are the Philippines and Bangladesh with 473 and 418 rejections respectively. While Philippines had an approval rate of 72 percent, Bangladesh had a much lower rate of only 23 percent.
New Zealand is benefitting from immigration a new report by The New Zealand Initiative says. It also found that the current immigration policy settings are broadly fit-for-purpose, but policymakers should be vigilant to ensure this remains the case.
Launched on January 30, The New New Zealanders: Why migrants make good Kiwis looks at the many people who are choosing to make New Zealand their home, and the effect they have on our society.
Issues of international students coming to New Zealand, which adds almost $3b to the country’s economy annually, is a hot topic in the country now. All the more when hundreds of students from India are being deported on charges of providing false information to the authorities here. Set in this context was the December 5, public meeting organised by the Ministry of Education in Christchurch to deliberate ideas on improving on the draft “international student wellbeing strategy”. When in force, the strategy will update the Leadership Statement for International Education announced in 2011.
- this came out at the Lincoln University Dairy Farm Open Day held on November 19; the 186 hectare irrigated property, of which 160 hectares is the milking platform, is a former University sheep farm
- he spoke to The Migrant Times after successfully organising the Bank's fourth Migrant Expo, held at the Vodafone Events Centre, Manukau, Auckland on November 5
Around 5,000 visitors attended the event, which started as a pilot three years ago. Last year, the event moved to Sky City and was organised as a family fun day with over 120 stalls.
Clive Antony is a man on a mission. The young University of Canterbury business management student, whose parents immigrated to New Zealand from Kerala in India 25 years ago, is taking the established street wear brands such as Huffur and RTM, in his bid to provide the Kiwi youth what he calls “the ethical alternative”.
Recently, the local community of Amberley, led by the local community connector Lee Lawrence, got together to organise a community expo. There were 60 stalls of local and wider North Canterbury groups and organisations. Over 300 people visited to pick up information, find out more and enjoy afternoon tea and entertainment by local school groups. Vineyard workers from Vanu'atu finished the event on a high with their lively string band, which was a big help to the organisers for energising the final clean up and putting big smiles on everyone's faces. The guys are now back in Vanu'atu until next season but their contribution was much appreciated.
The message at Pegasus Health's Annual General Meeting held last week was loud and clear. Vince Barry, Chief Executive of the charitable organisation noted, “We should and will do more to engage with CALD communities. There is a role for us to generate awareness about various health issues among the communities.”
The case in question is the last month order by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) awarding Kapilaben Patel, a migrant worker from Gujarat, India, $31,413.19 for unpaid wages, working on public holidays, and holiday pay; and a further $11,400 as reimbursement of the money paid in contravention of 12(A) of the Wages Protection Act.
Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel, and her challenger John Minto (right), at the Mayoral Debate on "A Climate-Smart Christchurch". Held on September 22, the discussion was moderated by Catarina Gutierrez from the Ministry of Awesome. The event was organised by Generation Zero and 350 Christchurch.
HTG and social trends research company, Windshift, have just completed a major research project among migrants. "We spent 100 hours conducting in-home interviews as well as a national survey comparing NZ born and migrant New Zealanders. We found that migrants tend to be highly educated middle class people who are savvy consumers and well disposed towards New Zealand brands. Migrants are loyal to brands that clearly demonstrate they value migrants’ business. Sixty five percent are educated to degree level or above compared with just 36% of those that are New Zealand born. And 72% consider themselves financially stable or prospering, compared with 54% of New Zealand born," notes Windshift.
On September 23, Chinese Consulate General in Christchurch held the reception to celebrate the 67th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. More than 200 people attended the function, including Customs and Disability issues Minister Nicky Wagner, Members of Parliament Megan Woods, Ruth Dyson, Poto Williams and Joanna Hayes, Special Advisor and Director Christchurch for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Amb. Phillip Gibson, Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel and 6 other South Island Mayors, and friends from various circles, representatives of Chinese community, Chinese enterprises and overseas students in the consular districts.
