Tuesday 07 November, 2017

Mayor leads Auckland business delegation to Guangzhou to grow regional economy

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff, and Councillors Ross Clow and Chris Darby, are leading a group of 97 delegates representing 70 Auckland businesses to take part in the third Tripartite Economic Alliance Summit in Guangzhou, China.

Mayor Phil Goff says, “This will be Auckland’s largest ever trade delegation. Businesses clearly see the advantage of interacting with our two sister cities at the summit. Each are gateway cities to two of the most important and powerful economies in the world.”

The delegation will convene in Guangzhou over three days allowing Auckland businesses to generate partnership and investment opportunities with counterparts from Los Angeles and Guangzhou, and for Auckland to showcase the city as a destination for investment and tourism.

Senior political representatives from all three countries – including Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Jeff Gorell and Guangzhou Mayor WEN Guohui – will attend the three day summit with over 830 representatives from the three cities and countries.

Mayor Phil Goff says, “Auckland is New Zealand’s international city and represents 38 per cent of the country’s GDP. As our city grows investment and business partnerships become increasingly important to it and New Zealand’s future.

“Guangzhou and Los Angeles are global economic powerhouses, as well as a major source of migrants, students and tourists. The formal partnership between our cities creates opportunities for us to facilitate the continued growth of local businesses and our economy.

“The summits provide real economic value and jobs to Auckland with deals ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars sealed as a result of the past two events.

“For Auckland, those agreements mean more jobs, business expansion, talent coming to our city, and New Zealand innovation and expertise finding new opportunities offshore.

“Our local entrepreneurs and business people pay their own way to attend the summit and see clearly the value in council facilitating closer economic ties with our sister cities. 43 Auckland businesses attended the summit in Los Angeles, this year we are taking 72,” says Phil Goff.

This year, BNZ, Huawei and NZTE are supporting Auckland’s delegation to the summit which has enabled around half the cost of Auckland’s delegation budget to be met by the private sector.

While attending the summit, Mayor Goff will meet with his mayoral counterparts, host an Auckland showcase event, meet with major Chinese corporates investing in New Zealand and tour the Haizhu electric tram with local government representatives.

“We are working with government to bring light rail to Auckland as quickly as possible. It’s a good chance to learn from the success of other light rail systems around the world and consider what is the best system for Auckland,” says Phil Goff.

Although Guangzhou will be the last of three tripartite summits, it has been agreed to extend the special relationship for another three years with opportunities for interaction between the cities outside of the formal summit process.

Further information on the summit, delegation members and information on the tripartite economic alliance can be found here.

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