There is an opportunity to make New Zealand a major and natural connection point between China and South America – it’s called the Southern Link.  The idea has been talked about for some time.  China’s Belt and Road Initiative provides a framework to make it a reality.

This international conference to be held at the Aotea Centre in Auckland on 25 June is the opportunity to build a value proposition for the concept and to put together a coalition to take it forward.

The conference aims to further develop the value proposition of the Southern Link by:

• Bringing together around 200 international experts and key stakeholders to discuss these ideas, identify potential coalition partners and develop recommendations to governments
• Identifying opportunities and challenges and outlining the scope of potential projects between the three partners (China, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and potentially other interested countries in South America) which would help turn the theory behind the idea into practice
• Developing a sense of the value that could be created by trilateral co-operation – including, from a NZ perspective, the added value that could be created for our relationships with both China and South America
• Continuing to focus government, business and public attention on the opportunities for leverage arising from participation in BRI.

The conference is not a one-off event. It is designed to have impact and to set an agenda for further work. Its legacy will be to establish a coalition of interested commercial and other parties to progress the Southern Link.