New era starting, predicts minister

Meeting up on the first evening of the Foreign Policy School in Dunedin last night are (from left...
Meeting up on the first evening of the Foreign Policy School in Dunedin last night are (from left) Prof Jin Canrong, of Renmin University, China, Prof Sam Zhao, of the University of Denver, former Dunedin MP Stan Rodger and Jan Brosnahan, organiser of the school. Photo by Jane Dawber.
New Zealand is on the brink of "an era of enormous trade and economic opportunity", much of it involving our increasingly lucrative export trade with China, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully predicts.

New Zealand exports to China had increased a "massive 43%" last year, off an already substantial base, he said yesterday.

This was during the "darkest days of the global downturn" but in the early stages of New Zealand's Free Trade Agreement with China.

China had already become New Zealand's second largest individual trading partner, behind our "CER partner" Australia, and having eclipsed the United States in recent months.

"We are camped on the edge of the region that will be the powerhouse of world economic growth for as far ahead as we can reasonably see.

"And if we cannot turn ourselves into a significantly wealthier country with that advantage, then we have only ourselves to blame."

Most New Zealanders did not have "any real sense" of how important our relationship with China had been in cushioning our economy during the global economic storm and "sparing this country some of the dramatic fallout experienced by small, vulnerable exporter nations elsewhere".

China was now the world's largest exporter, its economy generating a GDP of $US4.9 trillion, and growing about 9% each year.

Mr McCully was commenting in an opening speech at the University of Otago's 45th Foreign Policy School.

The annual school, being held at Salmond College, Dunedin, is this year devoted to "China's Ascent: New Superpower or New Global System?"

Mr McCully had flown back to New Zealand yesterday, via Frankfurt and Beijing, after taking part in talks linked to an International Whaling Commission meeting in Morocco.

There was huge potential for growth of New Zealand's "big exports", dairy products in particular, but the "dramatic growth and increased size of China's middle class" would also create wider opportunities, including in increased wine sales.

The Otago foreign policy school enjoyed "a huge reputation for its contribution to high-quality policy debate" and he was delighted the school was focusing this year on New Zealand's relationship with China.

Efforts were continuing to strengthen people-to-people links with China, and, as Minister of Sport, he was also supporting moves to build rugby in China.

He also paid tribute to Dunedin's "outstanding Natural History New Zealand television company", a New Zealand firm with special skills that they had leveraged into a "truly major role" in the Chinese market.

- john.gibb@odt.co.nz

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