Mr. Qi Jun,

MP Nancy Lu,

Mayor Brown,

Ambassador McKinnon,

Mr. Bridges,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to join so many old and new friends here at Vision 2024 and discuss our future cooperation. This end-of-year gala has become a signature event for China-NZ practical cooperation and attracted attention here in this country. I wish to offer my congratulations to the host, CCCNZ, and acknowledge all the friends who have been supportive of China’s trade and investment cooperation with New Zealand.

If you allow me, I would like to start with the state of the Chinese economy. After a challenging three-year combat against Covid-19, China headed into 2023 with a sharp focus on the country’s economic recovery. Despite a complicated external environment and some downward pressure internally, China’s economy has maintained a positive trend, thanks to its continuous efforts to reform and open up, together with a series of supporting policies. Let me share with you some facts and figures:

There is increasing evidence that the country is on track for a steady recovery with growing momentum. In the first three quarters of the year, China’s GDP grew 5.2% year on year, visibly faster than the 3% last year, higher than the average annual growth rate of 4.5% over the three years during Covid-19, and faster than most other major economies. Given the country’s huge scale and a weak global economy, such impressive growth has not come easily.

A bright spot is consumption, which once again leads the country’s growth. As policy measures to expand demand and boost consumption take effect, China’s consumer market has rebounded well. The contribution rate of consumption to economic growth reached 83.2% in the first three quarters, and that of domestic demand reached 113%. Retail sales grew by 7.6% on a yearly basis in October, 2.1 percentage point faster as compared with last month.

In addition, China’s pursuit of high-quality development is increasingly powered by new, innovation-based drivers. Investment in high-tech industries jumped 11.1% in the first 10 months, 8.2 percentage points higher than that of investment in total. The production and sales of China’s new energy vehicles saw a yearly increase of 33.9% and 37.8% respectively. In October, equipment production output grew by 6.2%, extending gains for a third consecutive month. The output of solar cells, service robots, integrated circuits, expanded 62.8%, 59.1%, 34.5%, respectively.

Looking ahead, the “next China” is still in China. International organizations including the World Bank, IMF and OECD, have recently lifted forecast for China’s growth in 2023 to 5% or above. At around 5%, given its 120-trillion-RMB size, China will still add each year to its GDP a medium-sized developed economy. These projections are a vote of confidence in China continuing as a major engine powering global growth.

As Premier Li Qiang has put it when he notes that this year marks the 45th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up, China will  continue firmly down this path in the historical process of advancing the country’s modernization and realizing the second centenary goal. And we are translating this strong commitment into actions.

One such example is the 24-point guide issued earlier in the year for attracting foreign investment, repealing discriminatory policies nationwide impacting foreign companies, removing all restrictions on foreign investment in the domestic manufacturing sector, and piloting a slew of high-standard international economic rules in free-trade zones.

As China pursues high quality development, it’s door will only open up even wider and in that process, continues to generate immense opportunities for the world including New Zealand.

Win-win cooperation is a defining feature of China-New Zealand relationship over the past 50 years, with bilateral trade as its most dynamic component. Defying external factors like commodities slump, fiercer competition, and shifting consumer preferences, China-New Zealand trade has exuded remarkable resilience, and China remains New Zealand’s largest trading partner, exporting destination and importing source.

More recently, our bilateral trade has further looked up on a number of indicators. For example, both New Zealand log price and GDT price index have gone up due to Chinese demand. Zespri is looking to sell 40% more kiwifruit to China next year, and this will come on top of the Chinese market having been a bright spot for the company this year. All these point to continued vibrancy of the Chinese market for NZ businesses.  

Another pillar of our win-win relationship is investment. With joint efforts of both sides, two-way investment between China and New Zealand has held up and seen many success stories.

New Zealand giants, like Fonterra and Zespri, as well as new comers like Zuru and Les Mills, have delivered great returns from the Chinese market, and they showcase the potential of bilateral investment cooperation. On China’s part, companies like Haier, Yili, China Travel Service, CCB, ICBC, BOC, are well established and well recognized on the NZ market, contributing to the local economy, creating jobs while being good corporate citizens by fulfilling their social responsibilities.

I am glad to note that CCCNZ has compiled two handbooks, one on Investing in NZ and the other on Investing in China, to help businesses better understand the investment and business environment in China and New Zealand respectively. I trust both will make a good read.

We have indeed come a long way. There is room, however, for further growth for our bilateral trade and investment cooperation. In this respect, I wish to suggest the following:

First, think long term. China enjoys distinct strengths such as a super-sized market in terms of demand, a full-fledged industrial system in terms of supply, and an abundant, high-caliber labor force and an entrepreneurial business community in terms of human resources. All these add to the endogenous resilience and growth potential  in China, with robust and stable long-term fundamentals.

I note that there is a narrative to diversify New Zealand’s trade profile. While I can fathom and even respect the arguments behind it, given that all countries, including China, would like to tap into as many markets as possible across the world, it is important to recognize that a country follows a specific trade pattern for a reason, as a result of selections over time by businesses and consumers on the basis of market principles.

To delink through non-market behaviors from the China, the second biggest economy and arguably the biggest consumer market in the world, or allowing non-economic factors or even groundless allegations to get in the way of normal economic relations will not make an economy or its supply chains more secure or resilient.  In fact, they will only become more fragile as a result, as such moves themselves constitute major or even the biggest risks.

Second, play to your strengths. According to China’s Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs, in the next decade, China’s consumption of agricultural products is expected to grow, with a significant increase in demand for high-value and high-nutrition products. For the sectors that are New Zealand’s forte - beef and sheep meat, dairy, fruit and seafood, the projected growth in consumption will drive an increase in imports.

As the first western developed country that entered into a bilateral FTA with China, New Zealand has important first-mover advantage. Over the years, New Zealand businesses have taken deep roots and worked to build up a reputation on the Chinese market. I am confident that they will continue to do well by carefully protecting and wisely using their advantages, including in particular the national branding as a valuable asset.

Last but not least, expand and at the same time, deepen our cooperation. The new National-led coalition government is focused on rebuilding the economy and bringing down people’s cost of living. On many of the economic priorities for the new government, as I have affirmed on several occasions, China could be a willing and able partner.

One of my pastimes over weekends in Wellington is window-shopping to investigate the countries of origin and pricing of  merchandise in local stores. As I have found, a significant portion of those indispensable for people’s daily life, be it homeware, home appliances, electronics, clothing or furniture, is sourced from China. I would suppose that quality products made, assembled or produced in China at affordable prices have played and will continue to play a major role in keeping a lid on the cost of living for Kiwis.  

Different in circumstances and endowments, NZ and China are highly complementary in economic structure, which provides huge rooms for mutually beneficial cooperation. For example, the new coalition government is committed to fixing infrastructure deficits, which is an area where China has experience, capital and capabilities.

Likewise, in the field of renewable energy, China accounts for 50% and 80% respectively of global supplies for wind and solar power generation capacity. In the first three quarters of this year, China’s aggregate export of new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products, which have come to be known as the new trifecta of leading export products, soared by 41.7% on a yearly basis.

Chinese companies and investors are willing and able to make greater contributions to the economic and social development of New Zealand. I hope and trust that the New Zealand side will in turn create an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for them to enter into and operate on the New Zealand market.

Friends,

When you look at the China-New Zealand relationship over the past five decades, neither the geographical distance nor the differences between our two countries in size, natural endowment, stage of development and social system have prevented us from working together to forge one of the strongest partnerships between China and any western developed country, thanks to joint efforts on both sides to manage our relationship on the basis of mutual respect, seeking common ground while shelving differences, and mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. This approach has underpinned our progress so far, and if adhered to by both sides, will power the relationship into an even brighter future.

For China, no matter how the international and our respective domestic situations evolve, we remain committed to working with New Zealand to pursue the sound and stable growth of our relations, and make the pie of common interests bigger.

Next year we will mark the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between our two countries. Our two sides could use this opportunity to renew our shared commitment to mutually beneficial cooperation to bring greater benefits to the two peoples. 

With that, I wish to conclude my remarks and wish today’s event a full success.

Thank you.