However, the minister said he was worried New Zealanders would "ankle tap" themselves in meeting those trade and service demands from emerging Asian markets.
As guest speaker of the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce, Mr Joyce reflected on meeting counterparts in Singapore and Indonesia during a parliamentary recess two weeks ago.
The New Zealand and Singapore populations were both very aware no-one owed them a living, Mr Joyce said.
"What that has bred in Singapore is an absolute desire to succeed and they have no natural resources to fall back on, so no food businesses, no massive natural tourism opportunities.
"They know if they want to make their country successful, they just have to get on with it."
Mr Joyce said many flew over Indonesia, but the home for 250 million people was the world's third-largest democracy.
Economic growth created a middle class of 40 million people in the past 10 to 12 years.
"Within 18 years, they're going to be the sixth-largest economy in the world . . . That's a fantastic opportunity for us, and they love New Zealanders even more than Australians.
"We're less bolshie and we go up there and we talk to them."
Mr Joyce said Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, China and Burma "coming out of its problems" all meant massive opportunity for New Zealand.
"We're just down the road, eight hours' flying time. All these people are growing their incomes, they're interested in increasing their protein, they're interested in food security, high value manufacturing, where their kids get educated, they're interested in tourism.
"These people are going to want to do a lot of the things that we do well and the only question for us is are we going to take advantage of those things.
"Our biggest risk is our potential to ankle tap ourselves on the way to succeeding in this opportunity. We have this quite regular disconnect between actions and consequences when it comes to economic growth and development."
Mr Joyce said overseas investment, oil and gas, intensification of agriculture and fee-paying tertiary students presented opportunities. He said it was right for New Zealanders to be worried about the risks, but the right approach was to mitigate the risks through rules and laws.
A chamber member asked Mr Joyce if the Government had any policy to rebalance New Zealand as the "political and fiscal centre of gravity" was increasingly moving to Auckland.
The minister said he thought it was a concern for the country, never mind the Government, but 50% now lived north of Taupo.
The Christchurch earthquakes' aftermath would continue the trend in the short term.
"In terms of anchoring the South, we need each region to say, 'What is unique about us, how do we attract businesses?' and leveraging the infrastructure that's already in place.
"If you take Dunedin, for example, how well are they leveraging the university and the medical school and the businesses that are already there?"
