Pacific Forum deepens links with China

Transcript

DAVID MORRIS: Yes indeed we had a very successful visit, we had some very successful meetings including with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of China, and leaders of key agencies in relation to fisheries and sciences and other issues. I think it is a fundamentally important relationship for the Pacific region. China has enormous financial capacity to support economic development; it has now a private sector that is very actively looking for investment opportunities, and has a very fast-growing outbound tourist market as well. There are many Chinese tourists looking for new, interesting natural locations to spend their leisure time and to spend their money. New Zealand and Australia have captured this very successfully. We think the Pacific Islands can also develop a stronger tourism industry by attracting some of those high-spending Chinese tourists.

DON WISEMAN: I guess one of the key things there is getting a lot more direct flights, isn't it?

DM: Yes we need to think as a region, and we need to think about the connectivity, the flights. For other industries we need to think about the transport connections, for exports, and so there are some big discussions that we can have for the region about how we can build closer links to key Asian markets, and of course those links are growing in size, they're growing in their need for tourism destinations, for fishery products and other products. So there's a big discussion to be had, and I think it's still early days.

DW: Do you think though that from the visit there will be any immediate changes?

DM: Well I think everything with China takes some time. I think the reality of dealing with a culture like China is that people there respect developing relationships with people. They like to get to know people and learn how to trust them. And so I think we need to understand that, that developing relations with China takes time and takes some effort, but it's worth it in the long run. I think New Zealand and Australia are good examples of that, they've been at this for decades. For some of the Pacific Island countries the relationship building with China is much more recent. As the Pacific Islands Forum, we're thinking about where do we add value at the regional level. And I think we can. I think in particular our links with Guangdong province, which is the southern province of China which has long cultural links to the Pacific region. I think there are areas there where we can work with Guangdong province in culture, in education and training, in people-to-people exchange and in particular of course in business where if we can invest in building those relationships in the long term, it'd be very advantageous for the region.