The Rt. Hon Jenny Shipley, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand,

Hon Governor Gong Zheng of Shandong Province,

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning!

It is my honor and pleasure to be part of this great event and to see so many distinguished friends both from New Zealand and China business communities and to see so many distinguished friends both from Shandong province in Auckland today. First of all, please allow me on behalf of the Chinese Consulate General in Auckland to extend our warmest welcome to the Shandong delegation led by Governor Gong Zheng and my special appreciation to the NZTE for organizing this wonderful event.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Governor Gong Zheng’s visit takes place at a very significant time of China-New Zealand bilateral relationship. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relationship between our two countries. Over the past 45 years the bilateral relationship has been growing very fast and now has entered the best period of the history. Particularly after President Xi Jinping’s state visit to New Zealand in 2014, the comprehensive strategic partnership has been greatly enhanced with deepened political mutual trust and strengthened cooperations in all areas covering from economy, trade, infrastructure, financing, tourism, law enforcement, education and culture etc. Currently China has become New Zealand’s largest trading partner, biggest source of international students and second biggest source of foreign tourists. Among western countries, New Zealand always stays at forefront and has created many “firsts” in developing cooperation with China.

This year added another number of “firsts” as well, such as signed agreements on starting upgrade China-New Zealand FTA negotiations and the cooperation agreement on One Belt One Road, which made New Zealand the first western country to sign cooperation agreement on One Belt One Road with China. Governor Gong’s visit is an important government visit to implement the results achieved by both leaders of our two countries and construct the Belt and Road of connectivity of policy, trade, infrastructure, financing and people to people exchanges between Shandong and New Zealand.

As we all know, economic and trade cooperation is an important engine and ballast of the fast growing ties between our two countries. As New Zealand’s largest trading partner, China has been New Zealand’s largest export market for four consecutive years and largest source of import for six consecutive years. In the context of the global economic downturn, the trade between China and New Zealand increased by 3.4% to 23 billion New Zealand dollars. Now both sides are working together to achieve the trade goal of 30 billion New Zealand Dollars by 2020, which was set by both of our leaders during President Xi Jinping’s visit to New Zealand in 2014. I am confident that goal will be reached on time through our joint efforts.

We are faced with tremendous opportunities in furthering the cooperation between our two countries and two peoples. China and New Zealand’s economy is highly complementary with each other. Both economies have maintained in a good shape of development. China’s GDP growth was 6.9% in the first half of this year. New Zealand and China have a lot in common, and a lot to learn from each other. China’s development concept featuring innovation, greenness, openness, coordination and shared development is very much in line with that of New Zealand. The 19th national congress of Chinese communist party to be held in Beijing next month will generate a strong push for China’s new round of opening up and reform, and surely will bring more opportunities for New Zealand.

Governor Gong’s visit is a very important visit to push forward the down to earth cooperations between the two sides. Shandong is one of the fastest growing provinces in China. It is a powerhouse of economy with huge advantage of industry and agriculture, with its GDP ranking top Three in China. It is a powerhouse of population, with about one hundred million people. It is a powerhouse of culture, the home town of the Confucius. More importantly, I believe, Shandong is a pioneer in the new around of opening up and reform and a leader in seeking the opportunities by tapping the comparative economic advantages of other countries to achieve win-win cooperation with the rest of the world.

As you can see in the video just played, the cooperation between Shandong and Auckland is also growing fast. Qingdao and Auckland have been sister cities for a long time, which laid solid foundation for the cooperation between the two cities and the province as a whole. Haier and Changda are very successful here in Auckland. In June, the New Zealand-Weifang Shandong High-quality Merchandise Expo was held in Auckland. I am sure that the visit of the delegation led by Governor Gong Zheng will upgrade the level of cooperation between Shandong and New Zealand to a new height, and greatly help promote China-New Zealand pragmatic cooperation.

I want to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to all the friends present here for your support to China-New Zealand relations and China’s development, and for your support to Shandong. I also would like to thank Governor Gong Zheng for taking such an important delegation to Auckland.

I wish both today’s event and the delegation’s visit a great success!

Thank you!