I don’t travel overseas for most of the year, and then I have 2 trips in the space of a few weeks.
Am off right now to Kuala Lumpur to witness the signing of the NZ-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement. This is in keeping with the Labour, and now National, tradition of the Minister of Trade inviting the Opposition Trade Spokesperson along to such events. This isn’t just good politics – it’s good business.
Our business leaders need the security of knowing the policy rug isn’t going to be pulled out from under them at the end of a short electoral cycle. This is about NZ Inc and both Labour and National get that.
This is a good FTA – it builds on the ASEAN-Australia-NZ FTA signed in February of this year. So it’s kind of AANZFTA+ as they say in the bowels of MFAT. I’ll post with more details when it’s all public.
Oh – in the interests of disclosure – the Minister (MinServe/MFAT) is paying for me (when I produce receipts) because it is an official government invitation. Unlike the Washington Partnership Forum trip, all of which I footed myself, apart from my 25% discount on the Auckland-San Francisco leg.
Back on Wednesday.
Aww, stop being so defensive, Maryan. Your trips are perfectly legit and you always do a good job – unlike some
Great to hear!
Pity you don’t include the insurance industry in your pious sentiments towards business leaders.
We have a FTA with ASEAN? That includes Myanmar (Burma), right? Does that provide NZ any leverage with the brutal regime there?
How can anything involving Malaysia possibly be good? Why are New Zealanders keen to be involved with people who constantly practice racial favouritism?
Strange recent news out of Malaysia is that they have a big problem with suicide amongst the Malays…Why? These people get every possible unearned advantage whilst the Chinese , the Indians and the natives do all the work.
Good you will be there to see and hear things for yourself.
New Zealand’s links with Malaysia go back a long way and there are some there who still recall the Kiwi soldiers with gratefulness for the help that was given at the end of the Second World War in what was then Malaya, and during the Malayan Emergency (ie Communist insurgency) especially in the 1960s.
However, all is not really that well in Malaysia.
The corrupting effect of money politics is endemic. And there is much that is not good and right there. See for eg a piece by Hamish McDonald from the Sydney Morning Herald website:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/party-machine-trumps-morality/2009/04/04/1238261809411.html
[...] Street blogs: Am off right now to Kuala Lumpur to witness the signing of the NZ-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement. [...]
I am amazed that anyone is enthousiastic about dealing with people who practice racial discrimination as keenly as the white South Africans did.
My experience of young Malaysians is that they are very ignorant about who fought for their freedom in the past whether it was against the Japanese or the Indonesians.
Modern Moderate Malaysia….the ultimate myth. In truth they haven’t had terrorist attacks on their soil because they harbour terrorists..Bashir spent many years there when he was not welcome in Indonesia. Nordin Top who was responsible for the Bali bombing etc , was also Malysian.