NZ seeking to grow relations with China: PM

New Zealand will continue to seek further trade and investment links with China as well as greater cooperation in the Pacific region, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said at an event to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries Wednesday.

"New Zealand now exports more than 10 times the value of product to China every day than we did in the whole of 1972," Key said at the event organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs and the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre.

"Rapidly rising living standards, increasing urbanization and a shift to higher-protein diets have supported demand for New Zealand products," said Key.

Since 2008, when New Zealand became the first developed country to sign a free trade agreement with China, New Zealand's goods exports to China had trebled, and China was its second-largest export market, with dairy and wood products the largest export commodities, followed by meat and wool.

The two countries were on track to achieve the goal the Key and Premier Wen Jiabao set in 2010, of doubling trade to 20 billion NZ dollars a year by 2015, he said.

The investment relationship with China was much smaller than the trade relationship, but also growing.

China was New Zealand's 11th largest investor with 1.8 billion NZ dollars of investment last year, much of it targeted at New Zealand forestry, manufacturing and agriculture.

"China is also investing in New Zealand government bonds, contributing to the record low borrowing rates New Zealand currently enjoys," said Key.

Chinese tourist numbers grew by 33 percent last year, and would continue to rise under a new air services agreement signed earlier this year.

China was also New Zealand's largest education market, with New Zealand currently hosting about 23,000 Chinese students.

At the Pacific Islands Forum last week, the governments of the Cook Islands, China and New Zealand announced a joint project to deliver an improved water mains system in Rarotonga, the main island of the Cook Islands, marking the first joint development initiative between New Zealand and China in the Pacific.

"It is an example of how we can work together to get the most benefit from our aid programs in the Pacific," said Key.

"Looking forward, it is safe to assume that current trends will continue."

Global economic activity would keep shifting from the Atlantic to the Asia-Pacific region, putting New Zealand's biggest growing markets around the Pacific basin.

"We have lots of things we can sell to other countries, but we also want to see New Zealand businesses forming productive partnerships with Asian and Pacific businesses across the region," said Key.

"To operate successfully in this region over coming decades they will need to have a good understanding of China, and of Asia in general."

The New Zealand government's China Strategy, launched in February, would help develop more targeted and cohesive services to help successful businesses grow in China. "We want to be transparent about our bilateral interests, and get on with advancing them," said Key.

The five goals of the strategy were:

-- to retain and build a strong, resilient political relationship.

-- to double two-way trade to 20 billion NZ dollars by 2015.

-- to grow services trade, including education services by 20 percent, and grow the value of tourism exports by 60 percent, all by 2015.

-- to increase investment.

-- and to grow high-quality science and technology collaborations that generated commercial collaborations.

About 200 delegates from government, business, the media, academia and the community attended the one-day symposium to discuss topics ranging from politics and diplomacy to education, culture, the economic relationship and the challenges ahead.