On the afternoon of September 20th, the Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce (Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce) and NEXT Federation jointly held a salon on economic and trade cooperation in Auckland, New Zealand. The Zhejiang delegation, consisting of the Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce, the General Office of the Standing Committee of Zhejiang Provincial People’s Congress, and the main leaders of the key enterprises, held close talks with the local political and business elites of New Zealand organized by the NEXT Federation, on the investment cooperation and technical exchanges between the two sides.
Mr Zhang Bilai, Vice Chairman of Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce, and Dr Yang Jian, Chairman of Advisory Committee of NEXT Federation, delivered important speeches respectively. Vice-Chairman Zhang Bilai introduced that Zhejiang Province is the land of fish and rice, the home of silk, a tourist resort, a strong province of China’s economy and a state of cultural relics. In the first half of 2019, the province’s GDP was 2.83 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.1% over the same period last year, ranking fourth in the provincial level. Exports account for 13.2% of the country. Zhejiang Province is committed to creating seven “Zhejiang in the new era” business cards in terms of facilitating people’s livelihood, scientific and technological innovation, and improving the environment to shape a newer, stronger and richer image of the province.
Dr Yang Jian, President of Advisory Committee of NEXT Federation, extended a warm welcome to the delegation and introduced the latest economic and trade development environment in New Zealand. Dr. Yang Jian pointed out that New Zealand has a good investment and business environment and is also very interested in increasing the introduction of foreign investment in the next few years to improve the speed and level of infrastructure construction.
Special guest at the salon, Chris Tennent-Brown, senior economist at ASB Bank New Zealand, gave a keynote speech on the New Zealand latest economic trend and trade cooperation environment. The salon also held in-depth talks on the intentional investment and cooperation projects of the participating parties and has made positive progresses.
Keynote speech by Chris Tennent-Brown, senior economist at ASB Bank New Zealand (Picture provided by NEXT Federation)
Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce and NEXT Federation signed a friendly cooperation agreement to enhance economic and trade cooperation (Picture provided by NEXT Federation)
The two sides signed a friendly cooperation agreement in this salon. The delegates of the two sides indicated that they will continue to strengthen cooperation in the economic and trade field in the future, provide mutual economic and trade information to each other, exchange visits from time to time, and promote investment cooperation projects to jointly bring to the enterprise more assistance and convenience.
Mr. Peter Goodfellow, President of Global Presidium of NEXT Federation, President of the New Zealand National Party, cordially met with the members of the delegation after the meeting. President Goodfellow said that NEXT Federation has been committed to promoting global innovation, cooperation and development, discovering optimal practices, sharing quality resources and improving public relations. New Zealand has a good investment and business environment and warmly welcomes Zhejiang enterprises to invest in New Zealand. The successful holding of this economic and trade salon promoted the mutual communication between Zhejiang and New Zealand enterprises. It paved a good path for further cooperation between the enterprises from both markets.
Peter Goodfellow(third left in front) met with delegation of Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce (Picture provided by NEXT Federation)