The Government’s being warned it may have just thrown away billions of dollars of international investment by scrapping the lucrative investor plus visa categories and replacing them with a new investor migrant visa.

The Economic Development Minister’s goal is to attract wealthy migrants who want to directly invest in Kiwi companies, rather than just investing in shares, to get residency.

The old visas required a NZ$3 million or NZ$10 million investment, now it will be NZ$5 million direct into Kiwi companies or NZ$15 million for passive investments like equities on the NZ stock exchange.

Tova asked Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash on Thursday morning "if it ain't broke, why fix it?"

"Because it was broke," said Nash.

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