New Zealand focuses on Eastern promise

New Zealand is shifting the focus of its economy away from Europe and the US to the emerging markets led by China, its trade minister said.

The New Zealand government recently lowered its economic growth forecast for this year to 2.8 percent from 3.4 percent, due mainly to the European debt crisis and the weak recovery in the US.

These two markets provided a major source of foreign investment in New Zealand and more than 60 percent of its exports went to developed nations.

"We have lowered our growth rate fractionally", but "we are much more optimistic about the economy in the long term, mainly because we have successfully repositioned ourselves toward the emerging economies led by China," Tim Groser, minister of trade and associate minister of foreign affairs, told China Daily.

China is the world's fifth-largest investing nation, and capital from it has mainly flowed to the Asia-Pacific region, especially to the mining and commerce sectors.

Forestry, especially timber processing, and aquaculture are two key sectors that New Zealand would like to see more investment in.

Aquaculture is an obvious resource in a land surrounded by the sea and Chinese capital would be welcomed to develop its potential, he said.

The countries signed a free trade agreement in April 2008, which came into force in October that year. This was the first FTA that China signed with a developed nation.

Chinese investors have been making headlines in New Zealand since then by piling into themarket.

Chinese leading appliance manufacturer Haier took a 20 percent stake in Fisher & Paykel Appliances in 2009. In 2010, Chinese agricultural company Agria purchased a 13 percent stake in PGG Wrightson.

But these high-profile commercial transactions fueled fears among some New Zealanders that China was playing too large a role in the economy.

A New Zealand court has recently blocked a move by the government to allow Shanghai Pengxin to buy 16 farms spread across almost 8,000 hectares on the country's North Island.

The FTA has seen a surge in two-way trade. China overtook Australia last year as the leading source of imports for New Zealand.

Exports have been growing by 25 percent annually.

The countries are trying to double trade to NZ$20 billion ($17 billion) by 2015, but "there is every reason to believe we could exceed the objective at the current growth rate before 2015,"Groser said.