From 1981 he was a spokesman on energy, customs and state insurance companies. From 1984 until 1987 as Parliamentary Under-Secretary to Ministers of Agriculture, Lands and Forests promoted a policy of removing farm subsidies. From 1987 he was a Cabinet Minister: Associate Finance, Energy, Regional Development, Trade and Industry and subsequently Commerce, responsible for the telecommunications and electricity regulation regimes. The Commerce and Trade & Industry portfolios entailed responsibility for the business and privatised utility regulation and economic relations with Australia. David Butcher was on the Ministerial Committee that oversaw the privatisation of government banks, Air NZ, NZ shipping corporation, corporatisation of NZ Rail and transport facilitation with Australia and Asia.
Democratically retired from politics in 1990, he has since worked on assignments in more than 30 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Pacific promoting efficient governance, administration and competition. His first assignment was a review of Iran’s electricity sector. Work on privatisation of Bangladesh’s jute sector (1992), electric power distribution, civil service reform, leading a mid-term review of a UN Project and work on parliamentary reform followed. In 2009, he led a team that devised a practical telecom unified licensing regime for Bangladesh and in 2012 studied the nation’s practices when taxing gas.
In 1992, he was part of the World Bank Vietnam Energy sector assessment, in 1995 he led a UN/WB review of a joint technical assistance project the Vietnam state enterprise reforms. In 2000 led a review of telecoms and electricity regulation and in 2004 was the international expert on a review of the competitiveness of the Vietnam telecoms sector prior to joining the WTO.
In 1999, David led preliminary work on electricity market development in Guangdong and Yunnan, China and in 2001-02 he was the regulatory and institutional expert in the ADB Central Asian Electricity Transmission Rehabilitation Study with Fichtner. In 2005, he worked for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to undertake a seven-nation study of electricity regulation in Central Asia, leading to a co-authored book (published by the ADB) and in 2008 participated in a project to promote electricity reticulation expansion in Rwanda to donors.
In 2003, David managed the UK funded £6 million utility reform and regulation project in South Africa. He also worked in Rwanda and Kenya. From 1993, he reviewed the management of state enterprises in Mongolia, and in 2004 led a team advising on the privatisation of Mongolia telecoms. In 2010, he led local consultants preparing studies of the impact of the 2008 Financial Crisis on Mongolia’s infrastructure.
In 2013, David was part of a two-person team reviewing the organisation of Mongolia’s Ministry of Mining. He has also worked on reforms to other infrastructure sectors: road transport privatisation in Laos (1994), splitting Kazakhstan’s telecommunications and postal services (1993) and reform of Kazakhstan’s upstream petroleum sector and he reviewed regulation of the inland waterway in China (1995).
For various clients, he assessed telecom regulation: NZ, Mekong Region, Cambodia (2001 and 2007) and Laos (2002). In 2010, David reported on Asia Pacific satellite services for the United Nations ESCAP. Since 2012, David has undertaken several ADB assignments including Bangladesh gas, scoping studies for telecommunications and corporatisation of state enterprises in Myanmar. During 2014 he served as a resident adviser on electricity sector reform in the Myanmar Ministry of Electric Power.
Two of his reports have been published; by the ADB (Electricity Regulation in Central Asia) and by Victoria University, Wellington (South Pacific and the Single European Market). In 2016, he completed an evaluation of a major project on ICT for Disaster Risk Reduction for the UN ESCAP and An evaluation of A Project Strengthening connectivity for the implementation of the Asia Pacific Information Superhighway subsequently has been mentoring and undertaking assignments for private clients. He is also the inaugural executive director of the Civil Service Institute of New Zealand. |