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Key is clearly on a roll as he lists the options New Zealand could explore if it decided to abandon outdated ideology and take a more pragmatic approach to growing the economy. The former investment banker knows what he is talking about. As head of global foreign exchange for investment giant Merrill Lynch he shifted a considerable amount of his business to Ireland in the mid-1990s to take advantage of a 10 per cent tax rate for foreign investors. The investment was a runaway success. "We transferred across the aircraft leasing business, the complex interest rates derivatives business, the entire back office for global foreign exchange and a huge chunk of private clients' business," says Key.
Already he is planning a feasibility study to see if some of Ireland's measures can be adopted here to fuel an economic transformation. "Why not look at the success lessons from other small island economies?" he asks. The Irish model is perhaps more easily understood here than the Jersey model, with its whiff of tax-haven activities.
In Key's case he can also point to the invitation he received in 1999 to join the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as further evidence of his economic management credentials.