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New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters, says a deal between South Island construction firm, Arrow International, and one of China’s largest building firms to work on the Christchurch rebuild, shows the failure of the Government’s post-earthquake strategy.
Arrow says its partnership with China State Construction Engineering Corporation will give it access to the company’s building material supply chain, expertise, and if necessary to skilled workers if enough trained people can’t be found here to work on major projects.
Mr Peters says apart from Māori instigated trade-training programmes, there has been little thought from the Government about where the workforce would come from.
"The value to the economy of the rebuild will be significantly lost. That's what it's all about. We've paid the insurance. We've got the people to do the job if they were trained properly, but they simply haven't got the workforce ready and you will get more and more of this (sort of deal) because of that and it really shows a lack of foresight and more importantly a lack of how sound economies work. You don't make money as a family paying for someone else outside a family to do the work – any more than the country does," he says.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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