| Speech on Promoting New Zealand Business delegation to attend the 100th Session of Chinese Export Commodities Fair |
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| Tuesday,June 20,2006 Posted: 10:31 BJT(0231 GMT) Commercial Office of Chinese Embassy in NZ |
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Good evening. I am very pleased to attend the “100th Canton Fair Informative Meeting”. I want to take this opportunity to express my thanks to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, the New Zealand China Trade Association and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand for jointly hosting this important and informative gathering to promote direct trade between China and New Zealand. You definitely have the support from my office.
Thanks also go to China Travel Service, for organizing a New Zealand delegation to the Canton Fair. Thanks especially go to my New Zealand business colleagues coming today with an interest to do business with China. I am sure the event this evening will help you know more about the Fair, and about how to make the best use of it.
For many years, China and New Zealand has been enjoying very good relations. Against this backdrop, our bilateral economic and trade contacts are going wider, deeper and closer. I remember when I served as Vice Consul of the Chinese Consulate General in Auckland some 12 years ago, our two-way trade was less than 1 billion dollars. But in 2005, according to New Zealand statistics, the figure reached 5.6 billion dollars. Now China is New Zealand’s 4th biggest trading partner, 4th biggest export market and 4th biggest import origin.
Why is the development so phenomena? The Answer is: our two countries are highly complimentary in trade. With China’s economy enjoying sustainable and healthy development over so many years, the production capacity of generic products is very big, and the goods are high in quality and competitive in price. Many New Zealand companies are already importing substantially from China; at the same time, China is importing agricultural, forestry and sea products in large quantities from New Zealand. With this, I believe that this complimentary nature of our two economies provides much potential for us to explore. And this is also the reason that our two countries are actively pursuing free trade arrangement.
China and New Zealand started Free Trade negotiation in December 2004. So far, seven rounds of negotiation have been held. Both side devote themselves to a high quality, comprehensive, balanced and mutually acceptable agreement, so far, the talks keeps good momentum and has made progress. Last month, during his visit to New Zealand, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Prime Minister Helen Clark decided to conclude the Free Trade Negotiation and sign the Agreement within two years. This had added great momentum to the free trade talks and provides more imminent business opportunities for business people of our two countries.
From my daily interactions with the New Zealand business community, I can feel very strongly that more and more New Zealand business people are looking beyond the Free Trade Talks and are thinking about trading directly with China or increase their involvement in China. Therefore, ladies and Gentlemen, I want to congratulate you on making a right judgment and good decision to go to the Canton Fair.
You have made the right judgment because you have seen the still much potential of trade between New Zealand and China, and you decide to respond earlier to get the “First Mover advantage”. You have made a good choice because the Fair is actually the best gateway to china for overseas business people, especially for those who do business with China for the first time.
Canton Fair is China’s best and largest commodity fair and has the longest history. Actually, Mr. Percival, my long time friend, knows much more than I do because he visited the Canton Fair long before I was born and went there for many times thereafter. But I want to share with you this information: In the 99th session held last month, more than 190,000 buyers from 211 countries and regions went to the fair. The turnover of export exceeds USD 32 billion, hitting a historical high. 808 brand name enterprises exhibit their products in the Fair.
The beauty of the fair is its gateway function. You can compare the same products from the different provinces at the same time, securing the best quality products with the most competitive price. You can talk with different companies and starting to build contacts with ideal ones in the venue, saving much energy, time and money to travel around the country to meet only one or two companies. And more importantly, you will have an overall picture in mind before actually starting real business and deepening your relationship with potential partners.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe that organizing a New Zealand delegation to the Fair is a very efficient and effective way to promote bilateral trade. I encourage you to go and look forward to learning what you feel about the trip after you come back.
Finally, let me wish you all the best and success in doing business with China. Thanks you.
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Bilateral Visits