Government signs off on Chinese water bottling expansion

The government has granted a Chinese-owned company permission to expand a water bottling plant in Whakatane.

Creswell NZ, which is wholly owned by Chinese bottled water supplier Nongfu Spring Co, applied to buy freehold and leasehold interest in 6.2 hectares of land at Otakiri, near Whakatane. The land is classed as sensitive under the Overseas Investment Act because it is more than 5 hectares of non-urban land and borders conservation land.

Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage and Associate Finance Minister David Clark have granted the application, conditional on the company providing an additional 60 fulltime jobs within four years and getting the resource consents it needs under the Resource Management Act, they said in a joint statement today. The company still needs water permits and other resource consents from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Whakatane District Council before it can buy the land.

View the full article here.