WELLINGTON, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand government on Monday issued a plan for raising the country's relatively weak spending on science and innovation, saying research and development is critical for its future.
The National Statement of Science Investment (NSSI) outlined the government's intentions over the next 10 years to raise public spending on science from about 0.55 percent of gross domestic product currently to 0.8 percent in the early 2020s as fiscal conditions allowed.
The government also had an "aspirational" goal to lift business R&D investment, which was "particularly low," to 1 percent of GDP by 2018, said the NSSI.
This goal was "critical to boost New Zealand's productivity, and, through that, improve wellbeing," it said.
The commercial impact of research and industry research activity was "an area in which New Zealand lags behind most other advanced economies, at a significant cost to our prosperity and wellbeing."
Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce said the government invested 1.5 billion NZ dollars (975 million U.S. dollars) in science and the NSSI set the long-term strategic direction for the government's funding.
"Over the next five to 10 years, the science system will be increasingly prominent as it both shapes and is shaped by an economy that is increasingly innovation-led, with New Zealanders who are more engaged with science in their daily lives than ever before," Joyce said in a statement.
"It's vital that our science system responds to the unique economic, environmental and cultural challenges that New Zealand faces now and in the future."
The Royal Society of New Zealand scientific society welcomed the NSSI, saying the goals should lift New Zealand's total public and private investment in research and development closer to the proportion of GDP that other countries allocated.
"It provides a clear signal of the intention to lift science investment for the benefit of all New Zealanders," Royal Society president Professor Richard Bedford said in a statement.
However, the main opposition Labour Party said it showed no proper policy commitments by the government.
"Even as far out as 2025, the targeted total science investment of 1.8 percent does not even reach today's Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average and falls well short of smart small countries who invest 3 to 4 percent of their GDP," Labour science and innovation spokesperson David Cunliffe said in a statement.
"That is despite evidence in the report that a third of the gap between New Zealand and the OECD is due to a lack of R&D investment. Innovation by New Zealand companies is still less than 2009 levels."
