Greetings valued member, welcome to the latest edtion
of the Sister Cities Newsletter - we trust that you will find it both entertaining and informative.
From the National Office
Highlight news for this month is the appointment of a Patron for Sister Cities New Zealand. I am delighted to announce that His Excellency the Governor-General of New Zealand, the Right Honourable Sir Anand Satyanand, GNZM QSO (seen here with the new Japanese Ambassador Mr Hideto Mitamura) has agreed to accept this position. We are indeed honoured.
In other news, Board member Russell Duff was very involved with Mayor Yamada and long time friend President Fumiyuki Saijo in the Otaru delegation visit to Dunedin to celebrate their 30 years as Sister Cities on October 16.The City was honoured with the presentation of 3 large taiko drums as Otaru's anniversary gift. Mayor Katsumaro Yamada, of Otaru, was in Dunedin with a large delegation including Japan's ambassador-designate to New Zealand, Mr Hideto Mitamura, and representatives from the Otaru Chamber of Commerce. The delegation visited Wellington on the 20th October.
President Bill Woods and Board member Hiromi Morris attended celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Auckland branch of the NZ Japan Society, "Taste of Japan" and President Bill also attended the annual general meeting of the Christchurch Kurashika Sister City Association.
I had the pleasure of meeting up with Madame Li here in Wellington during her visit to an AsiaNZ Board neeting last week.
Madame LI Xiaolin is the Vice President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), a national people’s organisation engaged in promoting friendship, international cooperation, world peace, and economic development.
Since joining CPAFFC in 1975, Madam LI has planned and organized many international conferences with wide-ranging themes on sister-cities, environmental culture, education, economy and trade.
At the same time I was also able to greet our new Chinese Ambassador - His Excellency Xu Jianguo and his wife Mme Ni Li. (Please see our welcome to Ambassador Xu and to Ambassador Mr Hideto Mitamura (Japan) in our news column).
Chinese "Whispers"
Sister Cities New Zealand welcomes the benefits of its relationship with China-Edge the consultancy company led by Managing Director Paul Rothville which uses the official channels created by New Zealand's Sister Cities relationships in China to assist New Zealand businesses.
Paul Rothville reports: "China Edge has recently completed a research project on behalf of the deer industry. Through the sister cities network, New Zealand enjoys excellent official contacts in China’s deer farming heartland. These contacts proved invaluable in the research process, demonstrating how sister city relationships can have economic payoffs.If you know of companies in your region that may require assistance in China, please suggest they contact China Edge. China Edge offers a great way to access experienced China experts while simultaneously giving something back to SCNZ.
China Edge also actively promotes New Zealand as an investment destination, and Paul Rothville recently toured a number of New Zealand regions exploring investment projects. Through its formal relationship with the outbound investment arm of the Shanghai government, China Edge is excellently positioned to promote high-quality investment projects to Chinese potential investors. Please get in touch if your region is interested in attracting Chinese investment.
For further information about China-Edge please click here;
The Beijing resident Kiwi, David Mahon of Mahon China Investment Management - investment manager, consultant and advisor to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise says that for companies starved of new equity or debt-funding at home, Chinese investors can be very patient and value well managed companies with products they respect.
Michael Stedman, Dunedin documentary maker, Natural History New Zealand (now the largest foreign producer of documentaries in China,) started visiting China in 1978 and says " You build a relationship, then build a friendship, then you do business. There's a whole series of layers to a relationship that don't exist here".
For information about the "myths" surrounding the China market it is worth checking out these thoughts from NZTE's Tim Green. Please Click here
Stuart Ferguson Chairman of the NZ China Trade Association also has some very valuable comments to add and I include an excerpt from his talk to the China/NZ Friendship Society in October. As Mr. Ferguson attests: “The root of Chinese culture is in agrarianism.....There is an emphasis on morality, following and family harmony. Almost all relationships, barring friendship, are hierarchical. Western culture by comparison is historically based on individuality, expression and social equality.
As with any business deal, “If you don’t know someone, you need to especially take care.” Haggling and bartering are very important, and can be seen as a way to ‘level the business relationship, and size up the partner’. One would be ill advised to fold as soon as pressure is met. To be prepared for business in China, people need to think in advance and on their feet. The hard part is finding a product people want, a market and a business partner. This would be the same even when conducting a deal between Christchurch and Auckland. There are no myths, it’s just a bigger and more complicated problem."
This affirms the value of China-Edge - having a partner you can trust in China.
AirNZ Awards 2010 - the aftermath
We are delighted that AirNZ will continue to sponsor the Awards for Sister Cities New Zealand in 2011 and I am pleased to bring you an update from the Award winners for last year.
Angela Wallace from Tauranga - winner of the Business Award section, reports that they are still to spend their prize money but are working closely on business developments in both China and Japan. Judy Livingston from Gisborne - winner of the Education Award reports that plans are afoot and currently under discussion with Air NZ. Next year is their 30 year anniversary with Palm Desert California and they are currently investigating dates that suit both parties for a Gisborne delegation to travel there.
Wellington Sakai Association - winners of the Culture, Sport and Recreation category, sent Bev Hodge (see photo above) across to Sakai in October to explore whether there was interest in developing and expanding links between different sporting codes between Sakai and Wellington, and to observe the Sakai Citizen's Olympics on the nationally observed Health and Sports day. Needless to say, Bev had a wonderful time and there are further snippets in the news column.
We expect to have the Brochures available re the 2011 Awards ready for the December newsletter and Graeme Barsanti - the Boards representative and co-ordinator for the Awards will be in touch with you at that time. I will continue to remind you about the value of entering the Awards and to suggest that yoiu start thinking about then NOW.
The closing date will be Friday 18 March 2011.
Japan, Tourism and APEC - How can your Sister City relationship add value?
Much has been in the news about the APEC meeting in Yokohama 10 - 14 November and what it might mean for New Zealand.
We need to focus on the outcome from APEC as it relates to Sister City networks, as the economy continues to stay static in Japan and municipalities and prefectures look more closely at the cost of maintaining their international relationships.
While there is much positive talk about Japan's economic restructuring and much was made of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations as a possible pathway towards a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific at APEC, the reality is that exports to Japan declined 22% in 2009 reflecting Japan's prolonged recession. By contrast China's economy expanded by 8.5% in 2009 helped along by a massive NZ$852 billion stimulus package.
Those readers interested in Japan's New Growth Strategy and the latest economic detail click here:
The emphasis for Sister City networks has to be on building stronger economic and educational links..
Prime Minister John Key is boosting tourism links with Japan and says that Japan now ranks fourth in the international visitor arrivals to New Zealand with a lot more potential to be explored. The government is going to invest NZ$1.2 million (equiv. 76.5 million yen) as an additional fund for the Japanese market and he has said that the money should be used by JTB (the old Japan Tourism Bureau) and Japan's largest travel agency, to motivate more Japanese travelers to visit New Zealand.
President Hiromi Tagawa says JTB is now promoting New Zealand with a caption of “A destination that meets adult’s tastes" - featuring diet, culture, lifestyle, and eco-tourism, in order to make “different approaches to New Zealand.”
He also referred to the potential of increased educational tours, saying, “More conventional models of exchange will not be enough. It is up to the governments (central and local) and tourism offices of New Zealand to decide how far they can go in organizing opportunities for human interaction and social exchange from an educational point of view. (PLease look at the contribution from Bev Hodge - Wellington's Sakai Associatioon. and Gisborne's Guidelines paper)
I would like to hear of your educational and /or cultural exchanges stories and in particular whether these have increased over the last 12 months. Promoting cultural and educational exchanges is core business for Sister City community and council networks and I believe that it is barely recognised by our core stakeholders. We will focus again on this at conference 2011 in Masterton.
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