Eligibility for South Africans may soon change ?

Terrorism threatens no-visa deal

The visa-waiver agreement with South Africa is to be reviewed amid suggestions that terrorists and criminals are travelling on fraudulently obtained passports from the republic.

A Cabinet paper recommends Immigration Minister Nathan Guy and Associate Minister Kate Wilkinson review the arrangement by the end of the year.

"There are concerns about the fraudulent use of South African passports by non-South African nationals and the availability of fraudulently issued legitimate South African passports," Mr Guy said.

"While Immigration New Zealand has been very successful in managing these risks to date, it is appropriate to reassess the current visa-waiver arrangement ... to determine whether a change is warranted."

In the 12 months to February, 72 people have been prevented from travelling to or entering New Zealand with what were thought to be fraudulently obtained South African passports.

In the past five years, 5057 foreign nationals were refused entry at the border - 3262 were believed to have non-genuine reasons for travelling and 448 were seen as "likely to commit a crime in New Zealand".

However, an Immigration NZ spokesman said yesterday there was no breakdown of how many were travelling on South African passports.

Britain also stopped allowing South African passport holders to enter without a visa three years ago, saying South Africa "fell short of the required standard" of passport security.

Anneli Botha, senior terrorism researcher at the International Crime in Africa Programme, says South Africans can use their driver’s licence, identity book or a birth certificate to apply for a passport, and fake South African birth certificates can be bought easily on the black market.

In an article for the Institute for Security Studies, she lists a number of al-Qaeda-linked terrorists caught with South African passports, including two alleged to be part of a 2006 plot to blow up airliners.

By Lincoln Tan | Email Lincoln

Posted on 09 Mar 2012 | By Sarah Crome

Forbes gives NZ business thumbs-up

New Zealand has been ranked second in the world in a study of the best place to do business.

Placed third last year, New Zealand came behind Canada in a study by global media giant Forbes which ranks 134 countries across 11 metrics.

Forbes considered property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom - personal, trade and monetary, red tape, investor protection and stock market performance.

’’While the US is paralysed by fears of a double-dip recession and Europe struggles with sovereign debt issues, Canada’s economy has held up better than most,’’ Forbes said.

’’Canada skirted the banking meltdown that plagued the US and Europe. Canadian banks emerged from the tumult among the strongest in the world thanks to their conservative lending practices.’’

Canada was ranked fourth last year. Denmark dropped from the top spot in 2010 to number five this year as its relative monetary freedom declined as measured by the Heritage Foundation. Denmark’s stock market also fell 14 per cent which was the worst performance of any of the top 10 countries. 

New Zealand secured top rankings in the metrics gauging red tape, investor protection, corruption, property rights and monetary freedom. It ranked relatively well, too, in terms of market performance, technology and tax burden as well.

Forbes used research and published reports from the Central Intelligence Agency, Freedom House, Heritage Foundation, Property Rights Alliance, Transparency International, the World Bank and World Economic Forum to compile the rankings.

Australia is ranked 11th. At the tail end are Angola, Burundi, Zimbabwe and Chad in 131st-134th spots.

What Forbes’ senior editor Kurt Badenhausen said:

1. Canada ranked fourth last year. Scores very well with investor protection as well as red tape - how easy is it to start a business. Canada is the ninth largest economy in the world. They scored in the top 20 in 10 of the 11 metrics looked at. GDP growth was 3.1 per cent last year and this year is supposed to be 2.5 per cent in this environment is pretty good

2. New Zealand - ranked third last year. Is the smallest economy of the top 10 but has continued to hold up very well during this global recession

3. Hong Kong - incredibly vibrant community - one of the lowest tax burdens in the world

4. Ireland - their banks have certainly had their problems but they score very well when you look at investor protection

5. Denmark. They were number one last year but were hurt by bad stockmarket performance over the last 12 months

6. Singapore experienced tremendous growth - 14.5 per cent GDP growth last year also tremendous trade freedom. Their trade balance is 21 per cent

7. Sweden is the most innovative country if you look at patents per capita

8. Norway - in terms of trade freedom and property rights, among the best in the world

9. United Kingdom had some bank problems and riots in August; still one of the biggest financial centres in the world

10. United States - highest corporate taxes in world hold it back from being ranked higher

By Nick Krause- BusinessDay.co.nz

Posted on 06 Oct 2011 | By Sarah Crome

Big influx of tourists due in next four days for Rugby World Cup

The Cloud fills up for a game

The biggest influx of visitors to the Rugby World Cup so far is forecast to arrive this week, pushing the number of international rugby fans in the country near 40,000.

The Ministry of Economic Development’s tourism research arm, in its report compiled before the start of the tournament, predicts about 14,000 rugby fans will touch down in New Zealand over the next four days.

Actual visitor numbers will not be known until at least the final days of the tournament - but the surge has already shown up in a range of indicators.

There are currently more than twice as many international cellphones roaming on Vodafone’s New Zealand network than at the same time last year. A Vodafone spokesman said many were visitors from the UK.

"People have definitely turned up," he said. "There’s been plenty of them."

The doubling does not include the visitors who have bought local pre-paid SIM cards to put in their overseas phones.

Foreign credit card spending in the country has also been tracking about a third higher than last year - an extra $10 million a week.

A Rugby World Cup spokesman said little analysis was yet available about exactly how many visitors were here, but their influx could be easily seen.

"The proof is in the pudding and we see it in the crowds - though most Kiwis like to be Irish, it would seem," the spokesman said.

A surge of visitors this week was predicted in the preliminary forecasts released by the Tourism Strategy Group last year - when total visitor numbers were estimated at 85,000, 11 per cent lower than revised estimates of 95,000.

The forecasts had already picked that Argentinian crowds would be increasing by 63 per cent while Scottish visitors would be starting to go home.

Scotland narrowly missed out on a quarter-finals place to Argentina after losing to England at the weekend.

The quarter-finals have been split between Auckland and Wellington, with the All Blacks, Argentina, England and France playing in the former and Australia, South Africa, Ireland and Wales in the latter.

The total visitors forecast for the Auckland teams is about 16,000, including expat Kiwis - and 17,000 for Wellington.

Lingering rugby visitors from other countries push the overall figure near 40,000.

About 20,000 other rugby fans were expected to have arrived and already departed - many of them Australian visitors.

Airport, airline and immigration figures for September will be released later in the month.

By Michael Dickison, New Zealand Herald

Posted on 04 Oct 2011 | By Sarah Crome

UK announce NZ third top country in travel awards

New Zealand has now placed third in Wanderlust’s Top Country category, two years in a row.

New Zealand has placed third in the Top Country category of UK magazine Wanderlust’s Travel Awards.

Namibia came first in the category, followed by Costa Rica and then New Zealand.

The award winners were announced in London overnight.

New Zealand came third in the same category last year.

Tourism New Zealand general manager of Western long haul markets Gregg Anderson said the award would help reinforce the value of a New Zealand holiday in the UK market, where Wanderlust was well read.

"Wanderlust has a circulation of more than 30,000 and our top three finish will stand us in good stead for UK travellers considering where they want to go on their next overseas holiday."

Wanderlust said on its website that it was Namibia’s sense of drama and accessibility that won it top spot.

"And that mix of drama and accessibility surely accounts, too, for runners-up Costa Rica and New Zealand - destinations where the natural world pulls out all the stops, but creature comforts are never far away," Wanderlust said.

Other mentions of New Zealand in this year’s awards were Air New Zealand, which finished third in the Top Airline category, and the TranzAlpine train journey, which took seventh in the Top Rail Journey category.

In other categories, Myanmar/Burma won Top Emerging Destination, Luang Prabang in Laos was named Top City, and Top Airline went to Singapore Airlines.

The Disservice to Travel award went to Ryanair.

The Wanderlust Travel Awards are held annually and are based on travellers’ experiences from December 2009 to November 2010.

Story by Paul Harper, NZ Herald

Posted on 30 Sep 2011 | By Sarah Crome