Mitchell Mark: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Mark: International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 05 November 2015. Volume:709;Page:7754. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): I am very pleased to take a call on this the International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill. As the previous speaker Phil Goff highlighted and Minister Goldsmith spoke about it is just a change really to the International Finance Agreements Act to allow us to become a member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.I just want to acknowledge the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee and I want to acknowledge Phil Goff and David Shearer. As Mr Goff just stated they were early supporters of this investment into what is going to be critically important as a bank that is going to continue to invest in infrastructure that is going to have a tangible gain and benefit for New Zealand. I am not sure of what the Green Party’s position is on this bill but I am sure if Kennedy Graham is taking the call we will hear its position on it shortly.Asia is driving global growth and it is full of opportunities for New Zealand—six of our top 10 export markets are now in Asia and 11 of the top 20 are in Asia. Some of the free-trade agreements that we currently have are with China Thailand Singapore Malaysia Hong Kong Taiwan and of course our recently signed agreement is with Korea. The New Zealand contribution in US dollars is going to be about $92 million and that has been determined relative to the share of countries in relation to our GDP. Some of the benefits that we have seen from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank—I think that Mr Goff made a very good point. I just want to highlight the fact that we were the first Western nation to actually get involved with talks and negotiations around the formation of this bank and that is actually quite significant. What it will allow us to do is it will allow us to retain a fair bit of influence in terms of the direction that the bank takes and where the focus will be on the investment in infrastructure in the coming years.I was recently up in the Pacific Islands for a forum up there and one of the real big driving issues that was raised there is the investment into information and communications technology and the need for a submarine cable. We are becoming huge voracious users of data and information and communications technology is important for any country that wants to engage in global business. This is going to be one of the focuses of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: upgrades on things like our information and communications technology infrastructure.The bank is also going to look at improved infrastructure in logistics hubs which of course will have a very positive spin-off for New Zealand products in terms of being transported more easily and cheaply internationally which is significant for us as a trading nation down at the bottom of the world. Having an efficient supply chain and being able to upgrade the infrastructure that is supporting our logistics operations are going to have a positive and tangible benefit for us.Improved infrastructure in airports will help New Zealanders to trade globally using Asian airports and hubs. I guess this is just an extension of the overall supply chain and logistics networks that we have to be able to access to get our products and services and goods to market. The sharing of knowledge between the investment banks such as the IMF the World Bank etc. allows for improved processes and activities. So being a member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is going to allow us to form even closer relationships and lines of communication in terms of the holistic view of growing our markets globally.I would just like to highlight the fact that and I often speak about this we are great little nation down at the bottom of the world. We are obviously very proud of the way our All Blacks performed in London. Not only are they the world’s best sporting team but they were also fantastic ambassadors for us as a country. But we are a small nation down at the bottom of the world and actually it is really important for us to continue to engage and be part of initiatives like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in terms of continuing to grow our own exports promote our own services and our own products and secure a future for New Zealand.I am very happy to support the International Finance Agreements Amendment Bill. Thank you.