Belt and Road comes to Hamilton and Tauranga

The NZ China Council’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) road show arrived in Hamilton and Tauranga on 15 August and 17 August respectively. We partnered with Export NZ to hold these events.

In Hamilton, the discussion focused mostly around the trade facilitation and supply chain connectivity aspects of the BRI report. The panelists included Yolande Louw, Supply Chain Manager, Bodco, William Zhao, Director,  Oceania Silk Road Network and Roger Wakelin, CEO, Simcro.

In Tauranga, the discussion was mainly around trade facilitation aspect of the BRI report, and possible impacts of the China US trade war to New Zealand exporters. Terry White, General Manager Planning and Supply Optimisation, Comvita and David Courtney, Chief Grower & Alliances Officer, Zespri joined our Executive Director Stephen Jacobi on the panel.

Theses events bring to the end of road show around the country. We have visited Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Alexandra, Queenstown, Nelson, Hamilton and Tauranga. We have been pleased with the level of interest among business and local government organisations in our report. We wanted to start a national conversation about how New Zealand, consistent with our values and interests, can participate in BRI and build connectivity with China and other  BRI participants. We are keen to continue that conversation with other groups. Next steps include continuing to work to build the Strategic Pathway by developing further contacts with sector groups and other stakeholders interested in BRI.