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Kai Luey, National President of the New Zealand Chinese Association, Parliamentary colleagues and local government representatives, Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

It is a privilege for me to open the 2007 Bananas New Zealand Going Global international conference, organised by the New Zealand Chinese Association.

Now in its third year of operation the ‘Going Bananas’ initiative enriches our collective understanding of the roles Chinese New Zealanders play in our evolving multicultural society and New Zealand’s place in an increasingly globalised world.

Chinese New Zealanders go back generations to the latter part of the nineteenth century and part of your conference will focus on this history.

These early migrants endured hard times both physically and through discrimination against them such as poll tax, which was finally recognised by this Government after representations from the New Zealand Chinese Association.

Those migrants and their descendents have helped build and shape the New Zealand we live in today.

Over the last decade New Zealand has accepted new migrants from China and Asia who will similarly influence our future as a nation.

In the latest 2006 census, nearly 150,000 New Zealanders identify as ethnically Chinese. And around 10% of that number live in my own electorate of Mt Roskill. Culturally, socially and economically, they make a huge contribution to my community.

Prominent New Zealanders of Chinese descent are the tip of the iceberg of all those in the Chinese community who have made a difference in New Zealand.

Entrepreneurs such as Richard Yan, Andrew Young and Jonathon Ling, lawyers and academics such as Mai Chen and Manying Ip, people working in creative areas such as in our film industry such as Alex Lee and Helene Wong.

The list is too long to continue.

As New Zealand has changed to become a more truly multicultural community, the world in which we live is also changing rapidly to reflect a new balance of economic influence.

Our region, Asia Pacific, has become the new powerhouse of the world economy. Twelve of our top twenty trading partners are now in this region.

Our fastest growing trading partner is China. Our exports to China grew by around 20% last year. With sustained GDP averaging more than 8% for the past two decades, China has achieved profound and remarkable economic and social change within a generation.

It is poised to overtake Germany as the world’s third largest economy by the end of the year, and within our lifetime is destined to become the world’s most powerful economy. Over 400 of the world’s Fortune 500 Companies are currently active in China.

China is New Zealand’s fourth largest trading partner accounting for 5.4% of our exports and 12% of our imports in 2006.

Within the next six months or so, we hope to complete what China describes as New Zealand’s four firsts. We were the first to conclude negotiations with China over its accession to the WTO, the first to recognise it as a market economy, the first developed country to commence negotiations with it for a free trade agreement and we hope to be the first to complete these negotiations.

Our agreed goal is a comprehensive and high quality agreement. New Zealand for example wants to see the phased but total elimination of tariffs to fulfil that mandate.

This month in Beijing we hold our fourteenth round of negotiations. Good progress has been made. Both countries are committed to conclude an agreement.

But we are not there yet. The hardest issues are left to the end of the negotiating process.

There are sensitivities on both sides.

But we both have much to gain from concluding the negotiations.

For New Zealand, a good quality Free Trade Agreement would increase our exports by $260-400 million a year every year for 20 years, to China, and ultimately save us in excess of $100 million in tariffs each year.

The free trade negotiations do not stand on their own but need to be seen within the context of an across the board strengthened relationship.

In December this year, we celebrate 35 years of our diplomatic relationship.

Our areas of interest and discussions are wide ranging – foreign policy, security and defence, agriculture, law and governance, human rights, development assistance, fisheries management, science and technology and cultural exchange.

But always in a relationship between countries it is people to people relationships which can make the real difference.

Here, our Chinese Kiwi population can have a real influence, in family links, cultural transference and trade and business relationships.

This year’s conference provides an opportunity to draw together many of the themes I have touched on this evening, examining not only the rise of China but also the proud history of Chinese people, both at home and abroad, the journeys they undertake and their contribution to their adopted societies.

This conference asserts the New Zealand Chinese community’s pride in its past and the confidence it has in its future.

I welcome the increasing profile and contribution of the Chinese community in New Zealand and know your deliberations this weekend will contribute to that.

I wish you all the best for a fruitful and enjoyable conference.

 

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