GREETINGS:

Thank you, Alexis, for the introduction and thank you one and all for the warm welcome.

I would like to acknowledge Graham Hall, Patron of the Rotorua Multicultural Council and former Mayor of Rotorua; my colleague Todd McClay MP; Roger Gordon, Chief Executive of the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce; Michelle Pleydell, President of the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce; and Alexis LewGor, Vice President of the New Zealand Federation of Ethnic Councils.

It is a real pleasure to be here today to launch the inaugural Rotorua Multicultural Business Council which captures the changes in our local and international trading population partners.

It is important to reflect on how New Zealand's international trade profile has changed in the past fifty years.  In the 1950s, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France were our top three export partners. Japan was the only Asian economy in the top ten. By the 1990s, five of our top ten export partners were Asian economies: Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Today, six of our top ten export partners are Asian economies. Countries like Indonesia and Singapore have taken the place of New Zealand's traditional European trading partners, such as France, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands.

To take advantage of these changes, the Government has been building stronger ties with our Asian neighbours. New Zealand was the first western nation to sign a Free Trade Agreement with China; now our third largest export market and our second largest source of imports. Exports to China in the 12 months to June 2009 were 62 percent higher than the previous year compared with a 7.5 percent increase for New Zealand's exports overall. Of course, China nowadays is the World's third largest economy. We are also exploring the possibility of a similar Free Trade Agreement with South Korea.

The Government has also started negotiations with India on a Free Trade Agreement and we will open a new Consular office in Mumbai later in the year.

In early 2009, New Zealand was part of the historic ASEAN trade deal. This deal is of considerable economic and strategic importance for New Zealand, covering agreements with Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines, and Indonesia.

Parallel to the ASEAN deal, New Zealand has concluded talks on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement with Malaysia in June to be signed later in the year.

Not forgetting our near neighbours, talks on the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations have formally commenced. New Zealand's special relationship and people-to-people links with the Pacific mean that this will not be a traditional free trade negotiation in which commercial interests alone define our negotiating positions. Economic development will be a key objective.

Rotorua businesses are in a strong position to take advantage of these arrangements. Census results show that 13 percent of Rotorua residents were born overseas and that one in every five young people identify with more than one ethnic group. More than 50 different languages are spoken in the district, including Mandarin, French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Hindi, Cantonese, Spanish, Korean, Afrikaans, and many others. Your contacts and insight into foreign markets around the world have the potential to find new suppliers, and bring in, or make, new investments.

Rotorua is one of the leading tourist destinations in New Zealand. Tourism is worth over $470 million to the Rotorua economy and employs over seven thousand people in the region, with almost half of those in the accommodation, cafés and restaurants sector.  It is not surprising to learn that the Rotorua district attracts more than a quarter of the 2.4 million visitor arrivals to New Zealand every year because Rotorua is the heartland of Maori culture, with many opportunities for visitors to witness its deeply moving expressions. Maori legends, stories and history come alive in Rotorua through an abundance of creative media; music, art, carvings, poi dancing, and the famous Haka.  

Coupled with its unique natural environment incorporating beautiful lakes, parks, reserves and geothermal attractions, it can truly be said that Rotorua captures the best of New Zealand all in one place.

The hospitality and generosity of Rotorua's Ngati Whakaue people can be traced to early European visits when the tribe became the very first guides to the magnificent geothermal wonders of their homeland.

This warm and welcoming attitude is alive in the local people today and made a strong impression on Mr Li Shun Xiang of Nanjing, China; a prolific world traveller and the largest shareholder of Nanjing's Moon Building Group.

In Rotorua he found something he had not found anywhere else in the world. Li Shun Xiang felt that his fellow Chinese worked too hard and wondered how he might import Rotorua's friendly, relaxed atmosphere into China.

Perhaps the best way to achieve this, he thought, was to bring Rotorua to China. And so he conceived Rotorua Town - an exclusive apartment complex on the Qinhuai River outside of Nanjing.

Work began on Rotorua Town in late 2007. Its buildings are based on Rotorua's architecture, its landscaping is based on Rotorua's plantings, and its cobblestones mimic Rotorua's streets. It has a replica Lakeland Queen docked on the edge of the river that will become a restaurant for its 5,000 residents. I am told that it even has a mountain nearby that bears a strong resemblance to Mount Ngongotaha.

As an added incentive, every resident who moves into Rotorua Town receives a free trip from Nanjing to the original Rotorua. This will mean five to six thousand additional visits over the next few years - a modest addition to the more than 600,000 international tourists who visit here annually.

Beyond tourism, dairy, beef, sheep and deer farming makes a major contribution to Rotorua's economy. And Rotorua is at the heart of the dominant wood supply region in New Zealand. Red Stag's Waipa mill, just outside the city, is the largest sawmill in Australasia. Rotorua is also the home of the internationally renowned New Zealand Crown Research Institute, Scion, which provides leading-edge technical and scientific capability to manufacturers of products using renewable plant resources.

Rotorua's total economy is worth $2.9 billion per annum with tourism, agriculture, and forestry being the largest contributors. But Rotorua's economic base has been changing at a rapid pace, with new innovations in your traditional sectors, as well as a competitive local environment for manufacturing and retailing businesses. Rotorua is also home to a number of new industries, including spa and wellness, biotechnology, and television and media.

As you all well know, businesses need to continually innovate and explore new ways of doing things to stay ahead of their competitors. In fact, it is precisely during difficult times when your competitors may have their eye off the ball that you can use innovation to your advantage.

We tend to think that innovation comes from the brilliance of individual geniuses - and it is true that some does. History and global experience shows that the exceptional individuals who come up with brilliant new ideas often happen to be migrants.  Instead of following the conventional wisdom, we tend to see things differently, and as outsiders we are more determined to succeed.

How many people here know that, while living in Taranaki, Chinese New Zealander Chew Chong pioneered the iconic one pound butter and refrigeration technique that has made it possible to export butter?

The other Chinese entrepreneur who was inducted into the Hall of Fame is Tommy Ah Chee, who pioneered the supermarket concept in New Zealand in the shape of Foodtown.

In 2007, Tommy Ah Chee's grandfather's market garden was discovered during the redevelopment of Carlaw Park in Auckland and research showed the Ah Chee family had leased the land back in 1882 to build the market gardens. 

Of course, Asia is not the only source of our migrant entrepreneurs. Fearing the signs of what was to become the Second World War, Nikola Nobilo and his family immigrated to New Zealand from present-day Croatia in 1937.

Nikola Nobilo was a stonemason, but brought with him his family's 300-year history of winemaking. The Nobilo family began planting grapes in Huapai, west of Auckland, in 1943 and gradually the Nobilos led New Zealand's wine industry away from hybrid grapes and towards classic grape varieties which produce higher quality wines. Nobilo grew to become one of New Zealand's largest winemakers with distribution throughout New Zealand, Australia, Europe and the Americas.

But innovation does not just come from individual geniuses alone; it comes from talented people working together. It comes from diverse people with different ways of thinking, different perspectives and different experiences.

After all, if there are ten people in a room trying to come up with the solution to a problem, and they all think alike, then no matter how talented they are, their ten heads are no better than one.

But if they all think differently, then by bouncing ideas off each other, they can come up with solutions to problems faster and better, as a growing volume of research shows.

Almost five percent of Rotorua residents could be considered Ethnic New Zealanders, compared to just over ten percent for New Zealand as a whole, but the number of Ethnic New Zealand residents in Rotorua has more than doubled in the past decade. Your businesses have a significant source of competitive advantage on your doorstep. 

Creativity and innovation are two huge benefits of diversity. A third is flexibility. Exposure to different cultures tends to broaden people's horizons and make them more accustomed to difference. It helps both managers and employees think "outside the box", to be more open to change and to adapt more readily to it.

It makes little business sense to target your own community too exclusively. I recently read a report by the Asian New Zealand Foundation that found that Asian businesses in New Zealand generally only do business with Asian customers. This represents a lost opportunity as, regardless of where you live in New Zealand, the majority of your potential market will not be Asian. A diverse business is better placed to maximise its relationships with suppliers and customers.

Multicultural businesses with a diverse workforce have a wider variety of skills at their disposal, so they can adjust quickly to changing circumstances. Those are vital qualities in today's tumultuous times when technology and economic conditions are in constant flux.

A fourth benefit of diversity is networking. Just look at the trading networks that have long existed among ethnic Chinese across Asia. Now Chinese New Zealanders can help connect this country to China and the rest of Asia's dynamic markets. Yet this huge potential is still largely untapped, since only five percent of New Zealand's exports go to China, whereas over 11% of Australia's do.

So whether it is by innovating, solving problems, improving marketing, boosting exports, or promoting tourism, multicultural businesses are well positioned to succeed. Diversity is one of New Zealand's biggest assets and it can be a major asset for Rotorua businesses too.

I wish you the best with your businesses and enterprises and look forward to hearing of your success.

Thank You.