
Tourism will feature as one of the key discussion points at next month’s New Zealand China Mayoral Forum. New Zealand mayors will be making the most of the opportunity to meet with their Chinese counterparts at the second Forum, to be held in Wellington on 3-4 December. At the Forum 12 Chinese mayors and vice-mayors from mid and large-sized cities will be joined in Wellington by 33 New Zealand mayors to further strengthen relationships between regions of both countries.
Trade and investment opportunities in tourism, education and primary industries will be central to discussions at this year’s Forum. With China New Zealand’s second largest source of tourists the Forum is an opportunity to further enhance and develop political and trade relations for the future.
Christchurch City Mayor Lianne Dalziel, who attended the inaugural Forum in Xiamen in 2015 and will speak about tourism at this year’s event, says relationship building is critical for successfully leveraging opportunities with China.
“This forum is all about relationship building,” Ms Dalziel says. “Local government has a role to play in building relationships with China that can benefit a range of sectors. For example, the introduction of the direct flight from Guangzhou to Christchurch can be put down to strong relationships which took time to establish and build.
“We as a city have established and wide-ranging relationships with China which are growing all the time. We regard these relationships as extremely important.”
New Zealand mayors will be making the most of the opportunity to meet with their Chinese counterparts at the second Forum, to be held in Wellington on 3-4 December.
At the Forum 12 Chinese mayors and vice-mayors from mid and large-sized cities will be joined in Wellington by 33 New Zealand mayors to further strengthen relationships between regions of both countries.
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