Venu Menon
Wellington, June 1, 2023
“As the Minister for Trade and Export Growth, it would be remiss of me not to discuss our growing economic relationship and, of course, securing a Free Trade Agreement with India would be ideal,” Minister of Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor has said.
The Minister was speaking at a symposium on India-New Zealand trade relations hosted by the High Commission of India at its premises on Pipitea Street in Wellington on May 31.
The Minister added: “But as I say, to [Indian Commerce Minister] Mr Goyal and to others, trade is not just about selling. It’s about sharing.”
Modi-Hipkins interface
Buoyed by the Modi-Hipkins interface in Papua New Guinea recently, the half-day symposium toasted India’s burgeoning presence on the world stage.
But panellists also grappled with tricky questions from the floor, which included New Zealand’s opposition to India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the lack of adequate air connectivity between the two countries, New Zealand being outflanked by its “hairy-chested cousin” Australia in trade and diplomatic missions based in New Delhi, and the lag in indigenous Maori inclusivity in Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) operations.
Titled “Forging a new age in India-New Zealand Relations,” the well-attended marathon event straddled four segments that opened with trade, followed by tourism and technology, and concluded with a session on diplomacy. The panellists comprised 18 speakers drawn from government and private sector agencies.
High Commissioner of India to New Zealand Neeta Bhushan welcomed the gathering, which included New Zealand Minister of Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor, former Governor-General of New Zealand Anand Satyanand, former MP Mahesh Bindra, councillors, members of the diplomatic corps, a defence delegation from India, as well as stakeholders from industry and academia, among others.
Noting that India was currently the fifth largest economy in the world, and on track to “knock on the doors of Japan to become the third largest economy,” the High Commissioner projected India as one of the leading “start-up communities in the world.”
She said high-level interactions were a pathway to grow India-New Zealand relations and the process had already started with the meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Chris Hipkins in Port Moresby recently, which was preceded by foreign Minister-level meetings. She saw the symposium as a platform to promote trade ties between India and New Zealand.
Building relationships
The trade component of the symposium kicked off with Director of Advocacy at Business New Zealand Catherine Beard as the moderator. The underlying refrain in this segment was that doing business with India was not just about selling goods but building a relationship, with Beard noting that New Zealand needed to “learn some lessons from how Australia did it.”
India New Zealand Business Council (INZBC) Chair Earl Rattray referenced India’s big “pool of English-fluent, highly educated youth” who were “going to change the world.” Predicting that India was set to become a $10 trillion economy “within the next generation,” he warned that New Zealand needed to engage with India’s youth “or be the poorer for it.”
Former Trade Commissioner based in New Delhi Jane Cunliffe, currently with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), noted that present levels of trade between New Zealand and India stood at around $2 billion in two-way trade and $1 billion in terms of New Zealand exports to India. She too stressed the need to shift the perspective from “selling to building relationships” while doing business with India.
Michael Fox of Zespri International, the world’s largest exporter of Kiwi fruit, said India was currently a small market worth $ 20 million and identified tariff as the biggest barrier to growth, “which makes the market uneconomical for us.” He said Zespri had a track record of working with growers in other parts of the world, and was looking to do the same in India to help improve productivity and have tariff constraints removed, in return.
Esther Guy-Meakin of strategic communications firm SenateSHJ said the narrative needed to shift beyond the “numbers on the export balance sheet” while engaging with India.
Air connectivity
On tourism, the audience heard that less than five million Indians headed out of the country for tourism purposes in 2000. The pre-pandemic tourism outflow from India stood at 20 million in 2019. According to world tourism organisations, this number will increase to 50 million in the next three years.
“Around 75 million Indians actually hold a passport while, pre-pandemic, only 20 million used it to travel. This gap tells us that a huge number of Indians will be travelling abroad in the next few years,” panel moderator Sandeep Sharma noted. This was reflected in the New Zealand travel market as well. Over 25 % of the 20 million Indians travelling abroad were going on a holiday. Leisure travel was set to increase year on year, he said.
Sarah Meikle, CEO of Wellington Culinary Events Trust and Director of Food Plus Drinks New Zealand, who has also been the New Zealand tourism manager for India years ago, recalled telling people in India who did not know where New Zealand was: “You know Australia? Just keep going.”
She stressed the need to go beyond the destination brochure and noted that initially the demand for New Zealand holidays came off the back of “some very successful [Bollywood] film productions in New Zealand.”
This was echoed by Petrina D’Rozario, Manager of Screen CanterburyNZ, who noted, however, that the relationship between the film industries of India and New Zealand had lost its early momentum. More specifically, she felt the Kiwi Indian was not portrayed enough on screen.
Wellington City Councillor Diane Calvert had an answer for those who complained about poverty in India. “I’ve seen more beggars on the street on Lambton Quay here in Wellington, based on the population, than I saw in Mumbai.”
All three tourism panellists were united on the need for better air connectivity between the two countries.
Digital superpower
Patrick Kouwenhoven, Country Manager NZ, Infosys, opened the technology panel discussion by noting the major difference between New Zealand and India was that of scale. Whilst it was easier in New Zealand, with its smaller population, “to get access to high-powered Ministers and people and roll out technology companies, India’s scale in terms of size and population is an advantage for its digital strategies that are underpinning the new India and its rise to becoming an [economic] superpower.”
He said New Zealand should be partnering more with Indian organisations “around all of technology and also agri tech.”
He believed India was a massive market that was yet to be tapped.
There are digital differences as well as similarities between the two countries. “You can’t treat India as one big market. India has 28 states and 8 Union territories. Most of these have larger populations than us, with different climates, communities, religions and languages,” he said, adding, “India has a diversity on a scale that New Zealanders need to appreciate in order to tap the opportunities that India represents.”
Kouwenhoven believed India and New Zealand were on the verge of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) explosion.
President of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce Karun Shenoy suggested the India-New Zealand relationship was defined by the three Ts: tech, talent and trade. “The latest Technology Investment Network Report said our largest technology companies in New Zealand saw their total revenue increase to $15 billion last year,” he said, adding, “The tech sector is on track to become New Zealand’s biggest export industry.” India was providing the worlds digital talent. Tech companies have a role to play in boosting two-way trade between India and New Zealand.
Next up, Dr Masoud Shakiba Founder, Tech TALK and IT lecturer at Unitech Auckland, spoke on behalf of a “small group of volunteers” passionate about connecting people. India and New Zealand needed to connect in order “to fill the skills shortage gap in New Zealand.” He said India’s pool of talent in the IT sector could be tapped to fill the skills shortage for start-ups in New Zealand.
Sakthi Priya Balaji Ranganathan, Founder and Design Technologist at JIX Research Innovation Lab, who liked to work outside his comfort zone, said there was untapped potential in aerospace where “the geo-location of our Aotearoa and its connection to Antarctica” needed to be explored. His prize-winning app, recognised by NASA, “resulted in the national history curriculum of New Zealand.” This app enabled the communication of indigenous history of Aotearoa in a more meaningful way, he said.
Leader-to-leader contacts
High Commissioner Bhushan then welcomed New Zealand Trade Minister Damien O’Connor to address the concluding session on diplomacy, adding that India-New Zealand relations had entered its next phase “when our two prime Ministers met 10 days ago.” The two countries were partnering in trade, investment, tourism, agriculture, technology, digitisation, and other areas.
Echoing the sentiment expressed by the High Commissioner, Trade Minister O’Connor referenced the meeting between Prime Ministers Modi and Hipkins in Port Moresby, where “Prime Minister Modi extended an invitation to our prime Minister to visit [India].” O’ Connor said he too planned to visit India “soon.”
He said India’s stature and influence were growing, and mentioned his virtual meeting with “my Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal.”
“We signed the Indo-Pacific’s Economic Framework, the supply chain’s pillar which should deliver greater surety in our bilateral trade flows across the Indo-Pacific.”
“A key strength in our relationship is the diaspora,” the Minister noted, adding, “Some reports put the Indian diaspora’s contribution to the New Zealand economy at $10 billion.”
He said education remained “one of the key pillars in our relationship,” with a range of education institutions investing in India. He said 305 New Zealand students have had the opportunity to experience India “since the launch of our prime Minister’s Scholarship for Asia programme.”
“As both countries draw closer to each other regionally, we’re also seeing meaningful developments in our defence relationships,” the Minister noted. He cited the White Shipping Agreement signed by the two countries last year which promotes better information exchange between the two navies.
“Let me put on record the government’s appreciation for the sensitivity and care shown by India when one of their [NZ Navy] cadets passed away in India earlier this year,” O’Connor said, adding, “Thank you.”
At the global level, India and New Zealand were both working to tackle climate change, the Minister said. “Upon India’s invitation, New Zealand was pleased to sign a framework agreement to join the International Solar Alliance, a key initiative of the Modi government.”
The Minister listed the areas of cooperation between New Zealand and India, particularly in the dairy and Kiwi fruit sectors. He highlighted some examples of “our business sectors putting in the hard yards to invest in this relationship.”
Quality New Zealand supplied 83% of all India’s sheep meat imports. Velocity Global, an award-winning start-up technology platform, provided services in over 400 cities across India. Raycon had been manufacturing in India for the past 15 years and provided skilled employment for over 500 staff, the Minister pointed out.
The Minister saw three key pegs of “our economic partnership” with India.
First, connectivity. “We will encourage the air services between our countries, which would be a transformational enabler across our relationship.”
Second, to encourage more regular dialogue, including with the business community.
Third, focus on agriculture and horticulture.
The Minister closed his address with a reference to “the sensitivities for a country like New Zealand that has a big profile in dairy exports.” But he was confident of the potential to work alongside the dairy farmers in India to “increase their income through better productivity of each animal that they have.”
Angus Middleton of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs (NZIIA), who moderated the diplomacy session, then invited Suzannah Jessep of the Asia New Zealand Foundation and former deputy head of mission in New Delhi, and Mark Talbot, Divisional Manager, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to field questions from the audience.
Anand Satyanand, the former Governor General of New Zealand, wrapped up the symposium with a quick recap: “We have been, for five hours, mulling over pursuit of a better set of relationships between India and New Zealand. And things like scale and size, and the difficulty inherent, have been brought out time and again.”
He said the scale was immense and the task an ongoing one.
“But this afternoon we have had the important bringing together of the three valuable participants: government, business and people representing various parts of the New Zealand community,” he noted.
He said the India-New Zealand relationship depended on these three stakeholders working together for its advancement.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington.
