IntroductionNew Zealand has a deregulated, decentralised economy directly exposed to international competition. Over recent decades, successive New Zealand governments have reformed New Zealand’s trade rules by removing many barriers to imports, ending most subsidies, and ensuring that the rules relating to overseas investment are designed to encourage productive overseas investment in New Zealand.The business environmentNew Zealand is consistently ranked by the World Bank and others as one of the most business-friendly countries in the world. New Zealand was ranked as the sixth best country for Operational Efficiency and Public Services in the World Bank’s Business Ready 2024 report and as the fourth least corrupt country in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2024.New Zealand is an independent sovereign state and a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Parliament is triennially democratically elected. New Zealand does not have a written constitution. The electoral system became a ‘Mixed Member Proportional’ representation system in 1993, which generally results in coalition governments led by either the National