Optimism from CEO alumnus

Former Dunedin man Philip Chronican, who is the chief executive, Australia, of the ANZ Banking Group, remains optimistic about the city's future.

Mr Chronican, who lives in Melbourne these days, was born in Dunedin and has a BCom (Hons) degree in economics from the University of Otago.

In the '70s, he spent three and a-half years working as a midnight-to-dawn disc jockey at Dunedin's 4XO radio station and he became president of the Otago University Students' Association midway through 1978.

He was back in Dunedin yesterday to give a talk on world economic prospects and other matters, at the University of Otago's School of Business.

And he attended the Ireland-Italy Rugby World Cup game on Sunday at the Otago Stadium, which he says is a "fantastic" facility.

He also had official duties there, given ANZ is one of the tournament's major sponsors.

He acknowledged in an interview that Dunedin had experienced some disappointments over the years, with the loss of former head office jobs to the North Island, and the shedding of manufacturing jobs.

But since he had left in 1979, the city had modernised, while maintaining much of its heritage.

The university had also gone from "strength to strength", its student roll rising from about 6000 then to more than 20,000 today.

"The future of the city is the university," he said.

Dunedin's future was essentially as "an educational services town", such as Oxford in England, or Boston in the United States.

There was also scope for further new businesses to be developed in Dunedin, using intellectual capital arising from the university's activities, he said.

Maintaining a lively arts and cultural life was also important, and he praised the Otago Museum's successful redevelopment.

Turning to global economic prospects, he remained confident of an eventual economic recovery in the United States.

The US was "a big economy" and although some of that country's difficulties were self-inflicted through political issues, that country had long shown "an amazing ability" to bounce back, he said.

Asked whether the European Union countries could experience a severe economic downturn in coming months, he said "that's a risk".

But even such a European downturn could well be of limited economic significance for New Zealand and Australia, given their close trading links with Asian nations, particularly China, which was still growing strongly.

A former Wellington-based economist for Westpac, he has seen huge changes in the transtasman banking industry over the years, including the growth of automatic teller machines.

Fewer cheques were being written, but substantial infrastructural costs remained to process them, and he predicted cheques would eventually be phased out.

"I would like to think by 2020 they're gone," he said.

He returns regularly to Otago. He and wife Leanne bought a property at Millbrook five years ago. Also, most of his family members still live in Dunedin.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz