N E W S L E T T E R
August 2019

SISTER CITIES CONFERENCE
Growing Cultural Diversity in Regions
Ashburton, 30 April – 2 May 2020
See sistercities.org.nz for more information

From the SCNZ board:

Introducing New Corporate Members
Bancorp Group Limited/Japan New
Zealand Business Council (JNZBC)

Prestige Law

By Mia Evans, General Manager of Bancorp
Group & Vice Chair of JNZBC

Prestige Law is a boutique, full services law firm basedin Auckland with offices in the Auckland CBD and North
Shore, and representatives in Wellington, Melbourne,
Shanghai, Taipei and London.

Bancorp’s core services include Private Banking and asset
management, Corporate Finance, Specialist Property
Finance and Services, Private Equity Investments andTreasury Advisory.  www.bancorp.co.nz
The Japan New Zealand Business Council, whose mission
is to promote business opportunities and strengthen tradeand economic ties between New Zealand and Japan for its
members, as well as the broader business community.
Membership of the New Zealand Committee is open
to private sector companies, individuals, government
agencies, regional economic development agencies,
industry associations, and educational institutions engaged
or interested in the promotion of trade between New
Zealand and Japan.
The JNZBC was formed in 1974 and is New Zealand’s longest
standing business organization within Asia.
The New Zealand Committee meets bimonthly forplanning purposes, oversight of the accounts, and otheradministrative matters. Following each Committee meeting
we hold networking functions with invited speakers. This isopen to all members and the Japanese business community,
as an opportunity to engage and exchange information tobetter connect NZ Inc and Japan Inc. www.jnzbc.com
Mia is an honorary member of “Support our Kids” and works
alongside this NPO to help children who have been orphanedor displaced in the 2011 Disaster in Japan. Mia works in New
Zealand alongside Ian Kennedy and facilitates the School
programmes, homestay families, activities, sponsorship &media. http://support-our-kids.org/about-en/

By Chantha Kim, Practice Manager

Prestige Law was founded in Hamilton in 2006 by Royal
Reed who has a NZ law degree and other qualifications
from the Republic of China and Harvard University.
In response to increasing demand from the migrantcommunities for bilingual legal services, Royal moved
to Auckland and transformed the firm to offer multifaceted legal services in litigation, with a special focus on
family law, conveyancing, immigration and investment.
The firm’s multicultural, multilingual and China market
expertise gave it the edge over firms of similar size whilst
providing complementarity to larger firms which lack thecultural flair.
The firm is specialised as a multilingual practice currently
employing lawyers and legal executives originally from
Taiwan, India, Thailand, Brazil, Malaysia, China, Korea,
Cambodia, and Japan and is interested in Taichung(Taiwan) / Auckland sister city relationship as well as
Fukuoka (Japan).
Royal’s CSR initiatives include being a member of Kea New
Zealand’s Global Board, board member of On Being Bold
group, and advising the Luxury Network, Auckland Art
Gallery, Land Information New Zealand, and many otherprivate companies both locally and internationally.
https://prestige.law/

N E W S L E T T E R
August 2019

Nau mai ki Tāmaki Makaurau e ngā manene o Kānata
By Pamela Jamieson, Auckland Council
The International Relations team recently hosted a visit
from Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs
Canada with leaders from Te Waka Anga Mua ki Uta, thecentral unit of Māori expertise within Auckland Council.
It was an opportunity to share how Auckland Council
is Implementing the Māori Identity and Wellbeing
outcome Te tuakiri Māori me tōna oranga, one of our
six Auckland Plan 2050 outcomes.
Head of Māori Strategy Policy and Effectiveness, Te
Waka Anga Mua ki Uta, Theresa Roigard said the visit
demonstrated the maturity of our Māori responsivenessand our willingness to share innovative ideas around ourown policy and legislative agenda.
The delegation was in New Zealand to learn about ourlegislative systems, policies and processes to recognise
and implement Indigenous rights. Discussion topics also

included Treaty obligations, The Auckland Plan 2050,
Innovation, Māori Engagement and Co-Governance.
Head of Māori Relationships and Governance Rama
Ormsby referred to indigenous world view perspectives
in decision making and the importance of Te Tiriti o
Waitangi based chief-to-chief relationships with Māori
in the governance of Auckland. He
hopes this dialogue will strengthen
engagement between Māori andCanada's Indigenous Peoples.
The Canadian officials are confident
they'll benefit from the discussions by
being able to mirror innovative ideas
from New Zealand in order to move
forward its own policy and legislative
agenda.
The visit concluded with a formal giftexchange of a ceramic huia feather(right). The huia is one of New Zealand’s
best-known extinct birds and is of
special significance in Māori culture.
L-R: Theresa Roigard, Head of Māori Strategy Policy and Effectiveness,
Te Waka Anga Mua ki Uta; Joe Wild, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister,Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Crown-Indigenous Relations
and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC); Rama Ormsby, Head of Māori
Relationships and Governance; Tessa Button, Policy Analyst, Treaties
and Aboriginal Government.

2019 China-New Zealand Year of Tourism Update
By Katherine MacGregor, Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
The 2019 China-New Zealand Year of Tourism has
provided a unique opportunity for China and New Zealandto strengthen economic ties through tourism. Across New
Zealand, cities and regions are making the most of the
China-New Zealand Year of Tourism to boost people-topeople links and opportunities for cooperation. A numberof key events and milestones have marked the year anddemonstrated the already strong links between China and
New Zealand.
Minister of Tourism Kelvin Davis for example visited China
in June. As a manuhiri of Chinese Minister of Culture Luo
Shugang and Tourism, Minister Davis experienced thevery best of Chinese manaakitanga, while also deepening
our relationship with China. The visit culminated in both
Ministers signing a tourism cooperation arrangement
between the Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment and the Chinese Ministry of Culture andTourism.
Similarly in July, student delegates from New Zealand andChina gathered in Christchurch to attend a week-longyouth leadership summit organised by the Institute of
Global Engagement. Students were resident in St Andrew’s
College with special topic days in Dunedin hosted by TaieriCollege. The summit focused on about preparing thenext generation of leaders in China and New Zealand tobe effective global citizens as well as build cross-cultural
engagement between the New Zealand and Chinese
students.
September will be a busy month for the Year of Tourism.
A New Zealand business delegation is visiting Xi’an in early
September. Delegates and New Zealand tourists will betreated to a Tang Dynasty Style Welcoming Ceremony
set in Xi’an’s Old City Wall. Such a welcome is normallyreserved for heads of state and is a “once in a lifetime
experience”.
In late September, there will be the New Zealand Chinese
Language Week (NZCLW). NZCLW is a Kiwi-driven initiativethat aims to increase Chinese language learning in New
Zealand and bridge the cultural and linguistic knowledge
gap between China and New Zealand. We encourage all to
get involved.
These events have no doubt contributed to the success of
the Year of Tourism and as November draws closers, alleyes will be on the Closing Ceremony, which New Zealand
will host in China.
For further details on events and how to get involved see
www.cnzyot.govt.nz

N E W S L E T T E R
August 20192019 Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET)
Programme Update
By Xan Wetherall, Japan Information and Cultural Centre, Embassy of JapanThe JET Programme is easily one of Japan and New
Zealand’s most important and successful cross-cultural
grassroots initiative programmes.
Spanning more than three decades, with over 3,300
Kiwi participants, it was an honour to be a part of thisyear’s cycle, seeing off nearly 80 new JET Programmeparticipants to placements all across Japan! The JET
Programme started in 1987, back when there were only 4
countries participating (New Zealand being one of them),and there are now over 5,500 JETs spread across Japan
from 57 different countries!
Successful 2019 JET Programme participants from New
Zealand arrived in Japan on Sunday 4th August, spending
three exciting days at Tokyo Orientation before heading
to their new homes around the country to promoteinternationalisation at a local, human level. To further
compound on this connection, a number of JETs wereplaced in areas with sister city links with New Zealand.
Chief among them this year was Minoh City in Osaka
prefecture, the sister city to Lower Hutt in the Wellington
region, where 14 JETs from across New Zealand wereplaced! New Zealand JET participants were also placedin Tomakomai-shi (sister city to Napier), Shinagawaku (sister city to Auckland), Toyooka-shi (sister city to
Ruapehu), Bihoro-cho (sister city to Waipa-Cambridge),
Tendo-shi (sister city to Marlborough), and Susakishi (sister city to Tauranga). With so many great sistercity-related placements encouraging cross-culturalcommunication across the oceans, it’s no wonderthat Japan and New Zealand have the most sister city
relationships in the country! It’s always exciting to see
these important connections being maintained over theyears, and we wish our New Zealand JETs all the best for
the year (or years!) ahead.
If you know someone who might be interested in applying
for the JET Programme, please feel free to check out our
website, or reach out to us by e-mail (jicc@wl.mofa.go.jp)
or phone (04-495-8333)! We’re always happy to answer
any question, and eager to send as many Kiwis as we canover each year! Applications for the 2020 New ZealandJET Programme intake cycle are slated to open midSeptember, and close 2nd December, so there’s no time
like the present to start getting your documents in order!
We can’t wait to see who heads over next.
For more information, please see our New Zealand JET
Programme website:www.nz.emb-japan.go.jp/culture_education/JET.html
Or check out the New Zealand JET Programme Facebook
page: www.facebook.com/JETProgrammeNZ
Below: Successful 2019 JET Programme participants from
Wellington enjoyed their “Itterasshai” Farewell Reception on
Friday, 2nd August alongside Ambassador Kobayashi theevening before their departure for Japan.

N E W S L E T T E R
August 20192019 China New Zealand Youth Leadership Summit
By Jan Fitz-Gerald, China New Zealand Youth Leadership Summit & Institute Of Global
Engagement New Zealand
The six day 2019 summit was held last month inChristchurch with 90 student delegates from China and
New Zealand in residence at St Andrew’s College.
This was followed by four special topic days for the
Chinese delegation in Queenstown and Dunedin andkindly hosted by Taieri College.
The purpose of the summit is to prepare the next
generation of leaders to understand each other’s culturesand countries and learn how to be effective leaders
together within a cross-cultural environment. Many
workshops, forums and presentations covered a wide
range of topics. Speakers included Stephen Jacobi of
the New Zealand China Council, Alistair Crozier, former
Consul General, Chengdu, Richard Leung of the New
Zealand Chinese Association, David Pine, former HighCommissioner and ASEAN Adviser and many more
outstanding people.
Student delegates attended their first formal opening
ceremony with special guests from the governments ofChina and New Zealand. Two VIP education delegations

from the municipal government of Qingdao attended theopening with a first city to city education cooperationagreement was signed between Christchurch Educatedand the Qingdao Education Bureau.
Hiromi Morris of Sister Cities New Zealand presented
youth summit organisers from Qingdao Education Bureau
and No. 9 School and the Institute of Global Engagement
New Zealand IGENZ with the award for Best Youth Projectof 2018.
The summit in 2020 will return to China where it isexpected that IGENZ will be taking a large delegation of
New Zealand senior students. Qingdao No. 9 School will
once again host the summit with special topic days likely
to be in Zhuhai, Shenzhen and Beijing.
IGENZ is especially grateful for the kind support of
Education New Zealand, The New Zealand China Council,
Christchurch Educated, St Andrew’s College, TaieriCollege and Sister Cities New Zealand.
Further details can be at www.globalengagement.ac.nz

Top left: Signing of Christchurch Educated and Qingdao Eduation Bureau MOU; Top right: Summit attendees and officials
Bottom left: Hiromi Morris presenting SCNZ Award; Bottom right: Government officals at opening ceremony
Photographer: St Andrew’s College.

N E W S L E T T E R
August 2019

Lytton High School Students and Staff Visit JapanBy Jan Calder, Gisborne District Sister Cities
Lytton High School (LHS) staff members Ryan
Majstrovic (Japanese Language Teacher), Tim Dagger(Deputy Principal) and Chrissie Robertson (HoD Food/
Textiles) plus two excited parents took a group of LHS
students to Japan for two weeks in May 2019.
During this time they visited Tokyo, Gamagori, Nonoichi,
and Osaka. The group were home hosted by local schools
in Gamagori, Nonoichi and Osaka as well as the contrast
of experiencing backpacker style accommodation.
Hometown Gisborne has had a SC relationship with
Gamagori (23 years) and Nonoichi (29 years) and thetrue warmth with which they were received and spoiled
with each city will be with them forever. The school
exchange between Nonoichi and Gisborne students has
been operating since the 90’s.
Ryan Majstrovic, with an authentic experience in mind
had travelled to Japan in 2018 to meet and make contacts
and personally plan the two weeks.
This preplanning resulted in a once in a lifetime
experience for both students and adults.
They now know the meaning of “total-immersion” and“being thrown in the deep end”.

During their stay there were many highlights, some ofwhich were: a Taiko drumming class, exploring the food,culture and crowded places, aquariums, fish markets
and restaurants, landmarks including an ancientfamily home, temples, universities and polytechnics,
a thought-provoking visit to Hiroshima, art and craft
options including carving a “Megani”.
All too soon it was time to leave. With very mixed
emotions both students and adults arrived back tofamilies, friends and school life. They brought homewith them great memories of meeting Mayors of verylarge cities, a group of women welcoming them with arendition of “God Defend NZ” at the Gamagori Railway
Station, the personal challenges with language, culture,
food and continually being placed outside their comfort
zones.
The group are now enjoying corresponding with their
Japanese friends, looking forward to greeting the Mayorof Nonoichi and his Delegation while here for the “Tuia
Encounters 250 / Te Ha 2019 Sestercentennial” in
October and planning the hosting of a group from Japanto Lytton High School in 2020.

Clockwise from top
left:
Drumming class in
Nonoichi;Zya Gurau & Kris
Matete wearing
Yukatas;Ella Parkin & Rata
Jamieson wearing
Kimonos;
Ryan Majstrovic
and his Taiko Drum
Experience;
T.K.Wharehinga &Skye Briggs with
Gamagoi students.

N E W S L E T T E R
August 2019

Xiamen - a Citizen's view of our 'Gateway' to China
By Janet Andrews, Wellington Xiamen Association
In this, the NZ China Year of Tourism, a trip for 18
Wellington citizens to their sister city of Xiamen
seemed perfectly timed.
Much more than a tourist view, this was to provide a
valuable introduction to China - its culture, protocol,
etiquette, daily life, language and cuisine - for a diverse
group of Wellingtonians including - a city councillor,a senior policy analyst for MPI, a board member of NZ
Maori Tourism, an art school principal, an event organiser,
artists and designers. All participants paid their own way,with much effort by WXA resulting in allinclusive costs of $2275 pp.
Leaving Wellington on May 26th, it was
an 8-day intensive programme of visiting
museums, exhibitions, world heritage sites,
educational institutions, and facilitating
opportunities for delegates, and WXA
officers, to pursue specific projects.
It also signalled our continuing and genuine commitment
to this sister city relationship, now in its 32nd year.
Several official functions were organised for us, notthe least being a formal ceremony at the Xiamen City
Museum, recognising the connection between NZ Maoriand the Polynesian forbears who sailed from the S E Asian
mainland some 10,000 years ago, and our presentation of
a pounamu mere to the Museum.

A formal dinner with relevant city officials and educationaland business contacts saw ongoing and future projects
discussed: film, IT, book printing, secondary school
twinning, short term tertiary student study tours, solar
panel exports, sporting exchanges, city-to-city tourism,
solutions to environmental challenges; and hopeexpressed on both sides that new scope for co-operationand more exchanges can be achieved.
So on all fronts this was a very successful delegation,
giving value to both individuals and to the sister city
relationship - with full recognition bydelegates of the potential benefits for bothcities from this relationship. From Xiamen,
we have since received a formal document
expressing sincere gratitude to WXA, andcommending the Citizens Delegations weorganise as "an innovative approach toenhance mutual understanding..."
As was concluded at the latest SCNZ Conference,
where the focus was on how SC's can achieve economic
benefit from SC relationships, this potential now needs
to be acted on by other agencies in the Wellington
region, and even across NZ , to be realised. Volunteer
associations like ours do the hard work at ground levelto build relationships and trust - business communities,
chambers, and economic development agencies musttake up the reins next, and act on these opportunities.

Top row: Wellingtonians exploring Xiamen and surrounding countryside
Bottom left: Wellington delegates presenting a pounamu mere to Xiamen Museum
Bottom middle: Dinner with Xiamen contacts
Bottom right: Wellington Citizens Delegation visiting Xiamen artists

N E W S L E T T E R
August 2019

Whanganui explores Economic and business
opportunities at Asia Pacific Cities Summit and asister city visit to Toowoomba
By Marianne Cavanagh, Whanganui District Council
Developing economic ties with Asia, as well as exploringbusiness opportunities with Australia sister city
Toowoomba, was the focus of Whanganui District Council
representation at the 12th Asia Pacific Cities Summit andMayor's Forum and Ag in the Asian Century Conferencein Brisbane in July.

be explored. This was evidenced by the front page articles
about their visit in the Toowoomba newspaper.
In addition, an arts exchange between Whanganui andToowoomba was discussed, with a strong link between thecities creative industries.

Councillor Alan Taylor (representing Mayor Hamish
McDouall) and Whanganui & Partners Chief Executive
Mark Ward were formally invited to attend by Toowoomba
Regional Council Mayor Paul Antonio. Both attended thesummit, Mayor’s Forum and conference.
Toowoomba's Economic Development organisation,
Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise, held a trade
event, "Ag in the Asian Century Conference" that ran
concurrently to the summit in the same venue. It focussed
on business within the agriculture and agribusiness fields,
enabling food producers to do business throughout Asia.

Wellcamp Airport, Toowoomba

Councillor Taylor and Mr Ward were then hosted for avisit to Whanganui’s sister city of 36 years, Toowoomba.
The three day visit to the Toowoomba region focussed on
visiting digital hubs, food and beverage clusters, creative
industries and tourist/visitor information centres.
Mr Ward was interested in the success of the Global
Agrifood Innovation Precinct in Toowoomba, and the foodand beverage clusters.
“Businesses have invested heavily, alongside local andfederal government, in positioning Toowoomba as a global
agrifood innovation hub, matched by ready-access tointernational markets through their local airport.”
A highlight was the visit and tour of Toowoomba’s Wellcamp
Airport. Discussions centred on the potential for tradeexport from Whanganui to Asia, via Toowoomba, with the
future focussing on introducing passenger services. Whilst
this would be several years away it is an exciting model toMark Ward, Chief Executive Whanganui & Partners and Joanne
Bray, Coordinator of the Toowoomba Visitor Information Centre
chatting over a bottle of Toowoomba Mountain Air.

Hamilton Mayor visits Chengdu, China
By Laura Lupson, Hamilton City Council
On the 8th June 2019, Mayor Andrew King & Councillor
Geoff Taylor travelled to Chengdu China for the Chengdu
Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Fair, and the highlight of the fair being
the 2019 Innovation Forum for Mayors ofInternational Sister Cities of Chengdu.
The Fair was sponsored by the Chengdu
Municipal
People’s
Government
and was themed by “New Economy,
New Ecosystem and New Business
Environment”.
During this trip, Mayor Andrew King andCouncillor Taylor attended the celebrating ceremony of
the Chengdu Hamilton School Project.
Mayor Andrew King was also hosted
to a lovely dinner with Mayor Luo
Qiang, Mayor of Chengdu.
The Waikato University Senior
Deputy Vice Chancellor Alister Jones
accompanied Mayor Andrew King andCouncillor Taylor to the meeting anddinners. Enhancing the relationshipbetween Hamilton City and Universityof Waikato.

N E W S L E T T E R
August 2019

Building a Core Cities network to connect globally
By Amber Walters, Wellington City Council
Recently, the Wellington City Council International
Relations team hosted a workshop for people from New
Zealand’s core cities. It was aimed to build a domestic
framework for collaboration between the International
Relations teams and Economic Development Agencies
from other NZ councils.
A few years ago, MBIE wrote a report about the advantagesof larger NZ cities, such as Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga,
Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, working together
to benefit their communities, called ‘Core Cities.’ Since
then, the Core Cities concept concentrated on the ChinaMayoral forum and water projects, without really exploring
what other NZ cities are doing globally in establishing
global partnerships, developing economic initiatives andinternational opportunities for their own communities aswell as the country.
The WCC International Relations team took the initiative
to connect the NZ core cities and Palmerston North
together, in a full day workshop, to see what we can learn
from other cities with a similar context and to share our
successes and challenges in engaging global civic partners
and encouraging economic development in NZ cities. The
theme for the day was “Mā te huruhuru, ka rere te manu”(With the feathers of knowledge, a bird can fly).
“Most of us were meeting for the first time. We shared bestpractice tips, policy frameworks, and learnt how others
manage their expertise, resources and time to the best
effect. It was extremely insightful for all of us. We don’t
want to have to reinvent the wheel every time situations
change,” said WCC Senior International Relations Advisor,
Amber Walters.
For the WCC International Relations teams, it was a chance
to discuss the importance of civic relations and global

partnerships based around their council’s priorities andbeyond their own sister city relationships with Sydney,
Canberra, Beijing, Xiamen, Sakai, Harrogate, Chania andÇanakkale-Gallipoli.
The joint statement from this first workshop is:•

To be relevant and competitive in a global environment,
New Zealand’s cities have a responsibility to step up
and cooperate internationally.

•

By growing and leveraging the connections between
our cities and the world, we attract valuable business,talent, ideas, investment, students and visitors to
Aotearoa New Zealand, creating long-term benefits
for our local communities and the country.

•

A recent independent report by the New ZealandInstitute of Economic Research (NZIER) reinforces
this approach, showing that well-maintained global
city relationships and official visits create a conducive,high-trust environment from which international
business, trade and exchange can more easily occur.

What’s next?
“We’re excited to continue building relationships withpeople from local councils around NZ. We had some great
initial discussions and I can only imagine they’ll get richer
and more helpful as we meet together more often,” said
Amber.
The NZ Core Cities network will reconnect with this groupin person every year, and continue to collaborate virtually.
If
you
want
more
information
about
the
workshop, get in touch with the team by emailing
GRPInternationalRelations@wcc.govt.nz

From L to R: Jennifer Zhou (WCC); Robert Peden (WCC); Milinda Peris (CCC); Amber Walters (WCC); Matt Nichols (CCC); Sean Hickey(HCC); Kimberley Wu (AC); Jo Hall (Tauranga Export NZ); Toni Grace (PNCC); John Christie (DCC); Tom Yuan (WCC).

N E W S L E T T E R
August 2019

Celebrating 30 years: Blenheim and Tendo
By Cathie Bell, Marlborough Sister City Committee
Marlborough celebrated 30 years of the sister-city
relationship between Blenheim and the Japanese cityof Tendo last month.
The relationship was signed in 1989, when Blenheim’s
then-borough council mayor Leo McKendry signed in
July, followed one by the then-Picton borough council
with the city of Otari two years later.
Blenheim and Picton boroughs have merged and now
form the Marlborough District Council, which is proudof its two long-standing sister-city relationships.
To celebrate the milestone, current Mayor John Leggett
met with Japanese Ambassador Hiroyasu Kobayashi
on July 3 for anafternoon tea to markthe occasion. Anotherformal occasion will beheld in January when adelegation from Tendo
is to visit Marlborough.

"Japan loves New Zealand very much and I hope New
Zealand likes Japan as well."With Palmerston North signing an agreement with
Mihara, Hiroshima, at the Annual Sister Cities
conference this year, New Zealand now has 44 sistercity relationships with Japan - the most with any othercountry.
Ambassador Kobayashi said he believes that Japanesepeople and New Zealanders have a lot in common.
After apologising for the wet weather in usually sunny
Blenheim, Mayor Leggett spoke of his own experience
visiting Japan three years ago.
He
was
"very
impressed" by efficienttransport and warm
hospitality, and thinks
the connection is a"wonderful experience"for young exchange
students.

The
Ambassador
saidMarlborough's
relationships with Tendo
and Otari were originallyformed because bothregionswere
major
cherry growers for theirrespective countries.
"It all started from the business side, but now has
developed into the cultural and educational side,"
Ambassador Kobayashi said.

"Having the Japanese
students spend timehere as well gives
everyone an opportunity
to see that there's a lotof things that we quite
like the same," he said.  
"We like to eat good food, we like to laugh, we likecomputer gadgets."

Rt Hon Helen Clark to attend EDNZ Conference 2019
By Linda Stewart, Economic Development New Zealand
EDNZ is delighted to announce that former Prime
Minister of NZ and Administrator of the United Nations
Development Programme, the Right Honourable Helen
Clark, will be a distinguished guest at the upcoming
EDNZ 2019 Conference.
Helen will take part in a one hour facilitated conversation
with EDNZ Chair, Pam Ford, and answer questions fromthe floor.
The EDNZ 2019 Conference will be focussed on inclusive
growth within Aotearoa – making it happen. Inclusive
growth is economic growth that is distributed fairly
across society and creates opportunities for all.(OECD).
The big questions will be posed and answered: "How do
we confront the rising inequality within New Zealandand its adverse impact on economic growth? Especiallyso at a time when the fourth industrial revolution (basedon emerging technologies) is threatening many of our
traditional jobs and has the potential to significantly
exacerbate the divide between the haves and have nots".

There is no bigger policy challenge preoccupying leaders
around the world, and especially within NZ, than how
best to expand social participation in the process so thatthe benefits of economic growth and integration can be
more evenly shared. Helen's experience and skills gives
her a unique perspective on the issue.
To learn more about the conference and to book visit:www.economicdevelopment.org.nz