Asia:NZ Media Newsletter - April 2008

Media e-newsletterApril 2008Kia ora and welcometo the April media newsletter. In this issue, we Rosetta Stone software preview theJapan New Zealand Partnership Forum in Tokyo, and includeinformation about our Diverse Auckland report and launch anew award for cross cultural reporting. Schools also have anew website resource for teaching Asian studies to NewZealand children. Read on and find out more.In thisissue: High level Japan-New Zealand forum to buildmomentum China's environmental dilemma and the FTA Asians: Better educated and integrating Mixing it up -our changing national identity Asia:NZ media update How to say Beijing New reporting diversity award Asia knowledge website for schools Hong Kong makesit easier for New Zealand winemakers New Zealandtheologian in Indonesia Journalists' guide to theBeijing OlympicsHigh level Japan-New Zealand forumto build momentumSenior members of government andbusiness leaders from Japan and New Zealand will meet inTokyo in May at the first ever Japan New Zealand PartnershipForum. Organisers say the partnership forum (May 14-15)will be one of the largest and most significant high levelgatherings between the two countries for some time. About100 business and governmental leaders are expected to attendincluding a 40 strong contingent from New Zealand.ThePrime Minister Helen Clark will give the opening keynoteaddress at the forum on May 15.Commentators says theforum will take place against a background of a relationshipwhich, while healthy in many respects, lacks momentum andwhere New Zealand struggles to capture the attention ofJapanese government and business leaders.Meanwhile Japanremains a major bilateral Rosetta Stone Chinese and regional partner of NewZealand and one of New Zealand's anchor tradingrelationships. Japan is New Zealand's third largest tradingpartner with exports totalling NZ$3.57 billion in2007.Japan is also the fifth most significant source oftourist revenue for New Zealand with 117,743 arrivals in theyear to February 2008, despite a reduction of 12 percentover the previous year.But at a time when Australia hassucceeded in launching a free trade negotiation with Japanand when attention in New Zealand is directed increasinglyto China, there is a need to take steps to ensure that therelevance of the relationship is not lost.In a recentinterview with the New Zealand Herald, Helen Clarkacknowledged that New Zealand's relationship with Japan wasolder than it was with China and that it was important notto take that relationship for granted.The Japan NewZealand Partnership Forum has been organised by the NewZealand International Business Forum (NZIBF) with thesupport of the New Zealand government and the Asia NewZealand Foundation (Asia:NZ).The NZIBF says it hasidentified strengthening the relationship with Japan to asthe first priority in its strategy for enhancing NewZealand's international business engagement. This isbecause of the size and potential of the Japanese economy,importance of Japan already as an established trade,investment and tourism partner, new opportunities that existand the risks posed by Australia's FTA negotiation. Theevent will be jointly chaired by Asia:NZ chairman PhilipBurdon, a former trade minister, and Yoshihiko Miyauchi,chairman of the Keidanren's Asia Pacific Committee. TheKeidanren is a business federation that is regarded asJapan's voice of big business.For more information,contact NZIBF executive director Stephen Jacobi by email atstephen[at]jacobi.co.nz or Asia:NZ media adviser CharlesMabbett at cmabbett[at]asianz.org.nz.China'senvironmental dilemma and the FTAChina faces massiveenvironmental challenges in the years ahead that will see itface soaring costs in environmental resources such as waterand air, says the author of China Shakes the World. "Youreally understand when you go to a place like New Zealandhow impoverished and how fragile China's ecosystem andenvironment is," James Kynge told Chris Laidlaw in a RadioNew Zealand Rosetta Stone French National interview."Obviously just living inBeijing, the air is like soup most of the time and the watertable in northern China is falling precipitously every yearbecause they're over pumping the aquifers to maintainagricultural production.