By Serge van Dam
TLDR: We should demand more responsible and responsive purchasing from our tax dollars. And startups should be right in the action.
Hey Big Spender!
Like in all other modern economies, the New Zealand Government is the biggest spender / purchaser in the economy. In fact, it purchases about $50B of goods and services every year, or about 20% of GDP. Much of that goes to sensible people and companies. But a lot does not, especially in technology or technology-centric services.
Just recently, the Government issued a new set of rules for Government procurement. These are not my kind of document, but what did strike me is Rule 8 (a set of rules - see picture below). The EXPECTATION is now that mid-sized contracts of $100k to $9m must by default go to Kiwi companies. Wow!
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