Speech: New Zealand Gala Dinner, Jakarta

  • Steven Joyce
Economic Development

Tena koutou katoa     

Ambassador Taylor, Trade Commissioner Anderson, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce, and the Indonesia New Zealand Council, members of the Renewable Energy delegation, representatives from New Zealand and Indonesian education institutions, Tourism New Zealand, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

It is my honour and privilege to welcome you to the New Zealand Gala Dinner.  This dinner is part of the New Zealand Season, a series of events showcasing New Zealand in Indonesia.  The links between our countries are growing on several fronts – especially the renewable energy, education, aviation, tourism and the food and beverage sectors.

The Indonesia-New Zealand links in these areas, and the personal relationships created by the Renewable Energy mission and other visits between our countries, show the close and growing links between our two countries. I’ll talk more about this shortly.

NZ Story

Tonight I hope you have seen on the screen “the New Zealand Story” which we launched late last year and tells the story of what New Zealand has to offer and what makes our country unique.

It aims to broaden the perception of New Zealand internationally, beyond the scenic beauty of the country to include attributes like our innovation and resourcefulness, our unique Māori culture, our integrity and our welcoming friendly approach.

When New Zealand exporters first go out into the world or visit a new market, they need something which places New Zealand and their business into context. 

That’s the purpose of the New Zealand story.
 
NZ relationship with Indonesia

Tonight we celebrate New Zealand’s strong and growing relationship with Indonesia. 

New Zealand’s exports to Indonesia have doubled since 2005 to $886 million in 2013. Last year, Indonesia was New Zealand’s 11th largest trading partner with total bilateral trade valued at $1.64 billion.

We are parties to the ASEAN-Australia New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) ratified by Indonesia in 2012, which removes barriers to trade.  We hope that Indonesia’s Trade Ministry will consider opening a trade office in New Zealand.

At the fourth Trade and Investment Framework meeting held in Jakarta just two weeks ago, we agreed to ramp up two way trade and investment.  The sectors that we shine a spotlight on tonight are further proof of this momentum.

Let’s start with renewable energy.  Indonesia has the world’s largest geothermal energy reserves.  New Zealand, with similar resources, has the niche expertise to help Indonesia maximise its untapped renewable energy potential.

Our geothermal cooperation started in the 1970s.  New Zealand helped develop Indonesia’s first geothermal energy plant, Kamojang, in 1982. 

Many Indonesian renewable energy experts have been educated at Auckland University’s Geothermal Institute.  Each year we reserve up to 12 scholarships for Indonesians to study at the Institute from a total of 50 places available to Indonesians in our ASEAN-New Zealand Scholars Awards.

We are building connections between our governments and Geothermal NZ, our industry group engaging in offshore opportunities, and Pertamina Geothermal Energy (Pertamina).  We have two Memoranda of Understanding, one between governments and another between Geothermal NZ and Pertamina, signed in 2012.  We look forward to seeing concrete cooperation from these agreements. 

New Zealand has world-leading expertise in resource assessment, environmental management, and collaborating with indigenous communities.  We can integrate new renewable generation technologies into the physical electricity grid and the electricity market.  We have a Special Envoy for Renewable Energy, Dr Mike Allen, who heads Geothermal NZ.

The presence of a dozen New Zealand geothermal energy companies tonight highlights our investment in Indonesia.  When this Renewable Energy mission visits Bandung it will be our third interaction with the West Java region in the past year, following a trade mission by our Customs Minister Maurice Williamson and 52 New Zealand companies in May and a visit from West Java Investment Board to New Zealand in September 2013.  New Zealand Oil and Gas recently made major investments in Sumatra.  

International Education

Both our countries recognise the significant contribution international education makes to the economic health of our nations and are aware of the rich social and cultural benefits gained by such exchanges.

Making connections and linking up with people across the world through education helps build enduring relationships and brings about greater understanding between cultures.

The New Zealand Government wants to double the economic contribution the international education industry makes to New Zealand to $5 billion by 2025.

Indonesia is an important part of that future growth. One of the aims of my visit alongside a delegation of New Zealand tertiary institutions is to further strengthen and build on our mutual education relationship.

We look forward to welcoming many more students from this country  as academic relations between our two countries continues to grow and I am certain we will reach our goal of 4000 Indonesian students in New Zealand each year by 2017, as reflected in our Government’s recently launched ASEAN Strategy.

Education New Zealand is working towards this by hosting education fairs and promotional events across Indonesia and yesterday I had the pleasure of opening the education fair in Jakarta.

We hope to hold the second bilateral Education Working Group meeting in Indonesia this year, under the Education Cooperation Arrangement signed by our governments in 2011. 

New Zealand’s tertiary education system – with every one of our universities in the top 500 in the world according to the QS rankings – offers Indonesian students a high-quality education in a country that welcomes cultural diversity.

The longer-term win for us all in greater international education is the better cultural understanding that we all get from having more people from other countries living in our society.

It is my hope that the Indonesia students in New Zealand will carry forward a lifelong understanding and affection for our country. They will be ambassadors for New Zealand.

Tourism

Tourism is another growth area for both countries with increasing numbers of New Zealanders and Indonesians travelling between both countries.

Better air links can and will transform our tourism relationship.  Our visitors to Indonesia rose by 12 per cent in the past year, partly due to Air New Zealand’s direct Auckland to Bali flight.  Indonesia has become a favoured holiday destination for New Zealanders particularly over our winter months. 

Our goal to double Indonesian visitor numbers in New Zealand by 2017 is also in our ASEAN Strategy.

Indonesia is a priority market for Tourism New Zealand, which now has a four person office in Jakarta dedicated to achieving that target.  Our Government has granted an additional NZ $15 million to promote New Zealand as a destination. 

Tourism New Zealand recently ran a roadshow and training for travel agents in Medan and Surabaya, and attended the Indonesia Travel and Holiday Fair in Jakarta, last month. 

A week ago, 10 senior travel sellers from Indonesia joined the first ever South and South East Asia “mega famil” or familiarisation trip to New Zealand to become fully accredited specialists for “100% Pure New Zealand” our flagship tourism brand.  Next week, Tourism New Zealand will attend the Astindo Travel Fair. 

New Zealand and Indonesia are also finalising an arrangement on tourism cooperation, as proposed by our Prime Minister and Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Her Excellency Mari Pangestu

Food & Beverage

The food and beverage sector is another important part of the New Zealand-Indonesia relationship.

Indonesia is our seventh largest dairy export market in the world and we are committed to providing safe, high quality dairy products for the Indonesian consumer. 

I understand that Indonesian dairy consumption is around 1/8 glass of milk per day and that your Government hopes to increase this. 

We are keen to support this goal and the New Zealand Aid Programme and Fonterra are also helping Indonesia grow its dairy capability.  The Aid Programme’s Dairy activity aims to increase the quantity and safety of local milk supplies.  Fonterra has a Dairy Scholarship Programme that trained 12 Indonesian farmers in New Zealand last year and they are considering a further course in 2014. 

We are also developing strategies to promote products like New Zealand beef and lamb in Indonesia.  The draft arrangement on food safety, which is close to being signed, will continue our valued partnership with the Indonesian National Agency of Drug and Food Control.

Investment

Investment is the engine that will move us forward in these and other sectors. New Zealand has significant investments in Indonesia and we hope to see Indonesia boost its investment in New Zealand. 

Fonterra will host a “ground-breaking” ceremony for its blending and packaging plant later this month.  Other New Zealand firms are breaking ground in their own ways.  The investment by New Zealand Oil and Gas confirms Indonesia as their top overseas market.  BECA Consulting, has 13 industrial and 25 high-rise projects in Indonesia including Jakarta’s Pacific Place Mall. 

To harness the potential of our trade relations, New Zealand seeks to resolve market access issues, especially for our agricultural exports.  We hope that Indonesia’s new trade law will support open and transparent trade between our countries.

Our journey towards deeper economic and trade engagement is bolstered by the close ties in other facets of our relationship.

Development cooperation has never been stronger. The New Zealand Aid programme in Indonesia is our largest outside of the Pacific, with NZ$100 million in total indicative aid flows from 2012-16. 

Together with Indonesia we are advancing President Yudhoyono’s geothermal expansion drive, improving agriculture capabilities, preparing for natural disasters and educating future leaders. 

We have committed NZ$10.5 million to up-scale production capacity at Pertamina, leveraging a US$300 million loan from the World Bank.  Indonesia is allocated the lion’s share of 50 New Zealand-ASEAN Scholars awards each year, from a total of 178.

The regional element is important in our relationship.  We are pleased to see ASEAN’s advances in economic integration, with Indonesia playing an important role.  New Zealand supports Indonesia’s aspirations for an ASEAN Community in 2015. 

We also support Indonesia’s vision for a post-2015 ASEAN anchored in economic growth, stability and principles of mutual respect.  We look forward to the 40th anniversary of our diplomatic relations with ASEAN next year.  We will hold New Zealand Festivals in Jakarta and all ASEAN capitals, a Commemorative Summit in Kuala Lumpur, and large-scale events in New Zealand. 

We must also fully implement AANZFTA to maximise its benefits.  We engage with Indonesia under the AANZFTA Economic Cooperation Work Programme, which builds parties’ capacity to integrate into the regional economy. 

Both countries are negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which is progressing well under Indonesia’s excellent chairmanship.  The RCEP is a potential “game changer” for regional trade and investment integration.  To fulfil that potential New Zealand, Indonesia and all parties must have an approach that is consistent with the vision set out by our Leaders when they launched the negotiations.

The unprecedented people-to-people links are moving our engagement full steam ahead, with 15 two-way Ministerial visits in the past year.

New Zealand will soon appoint an Agriculture Counsellor at the Jakarta Embassy.  This follows the creation of permanent offices by Education New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand last year, and the appointment of Trade Commissioner Anderson in 2012.

I would like to acknowledge the leadership of the New Zealand Indonesia Council, including the Council’s patrons, former Foreign Minister and member of the President’s Foreign Policy Council, Bapak Hassan Wirajuda, and our Foreign Minister Hon Murray McCully and Trade Minister Hon Tim Groser. 

The Council is ably co-chaired by Pak Amris Hassan, former Indonesian Ambassador to New Zealand, and Professor Pat Walsh, the former Vice Chancellor of Victoria University.

As we celebrate New Zealand’s presence in Indonesia, the opportunities are not just on the horizon.  They are right in front of us.  In seizing them, we are committed to increasing trade, especially in key sectors, and strengthening our partnership as friends in the Asia-Pacific region.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, terima kasih.

Thank you for being part of the New Zealand story in Indonesia, and for the exciting partnership and bright future our countries have in working closer together.