An agricultural economy where a third of exports go to China. Selling passports won't offset that when geopolitics intervenes. But using those investments to help build out a vibrant tech sector would go further. It may also bring back some of the tech workers the country's been losing.

I don't really see the path from "selling passports" to "vibrant tech sector". That's something politicians have been selling to you to explain their policies. New Zealand is hostile to anyone not having six figures in their bank account. A vibrant tech sector requires all kind of people, laws, infrastructure, etc... Running a business is messy and running a country which run businesses is also messy and require all kind of work/hustles.

Who needs that when you can sell passports/real estate/ocean views for lots of money and little work involved.