Expo 2010 in Shanghai – New Zealand Makes a Good Start

In its Export News of 5 May 2010, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise reports on various aspects of the country's participation in Shanghai's Expo 2010. 
   
As Expo 2010 got under way with a glittering opening ceremony on 30 April, China once again takes centre stage less than two years after the Beijing Olympics. The Chinese media is naturally full of it and there are advertising posters everywhere. The domestic publicity is only in part to encourage Expo attendance. It is also intended to constantly remind the millions whose circumstances make it totally out of reach that whatever their personal situations, China is great.

National pride aside, the public image of the Shanghai Expo is about countries, regions and international organisations displaying their brands and providing a huge range of visitor experiences all on one large and spectacular site. For the government and corporate funders of each and every pavilion, there needs to be an economic benefit that most of the 70 million visitors expected over the next six months will be blissfully unaware of.

Shanghai Expo is Important to New Zealand
Hopes are high for significant business spin-off from the massive event being held in the commercial powerhouse of China. New Zealand for one most definitely has expectations that economic benefits will flow from its well-planned and high-profile presence.

New Zealand’s Expo Commissioner-General Phillip Gibson explains the importance and relevance of New Zealand’s presence. "The Shanghai Expo will be the biggest and possibly the most important in history. It will provide us with a unique opportunity to position New Zealand in a market that is increasingly critical to our prosperity”, Mr Gibson told Anna Caswell reporting for NZTE on 5 May 2010. "It will give New Zealand businesses a platform to develop and strengthen trade links with the world’s most dynamic economy,”

Mr Gibson talks passionately about the New Zealand brand and how the Shanghai Expo can help its presentation to the world. “New Zealand’s presence in Shanghai presents a strategic opportunity to present ‘New Zealand Inc’ to China and the rest of the world. This is not a trade fair – it’s bigger than that. Our pavilion showcases New Zealand as a clean, green, vibrant, smart, innovative, great place to do business, for education, or to visit as a tourist,” Mr Gibson is reported as saying.

New Zealand Pavilion is a Popular Place
The New Zealand Pavilion’s VIP facilty has over 200 functions booked, more than one per day during the six month long Expo. The 7,000 invited guests expected to attend these events will be hosted by companies acting independently or as part of high-level trade missions. They will wine and dine their customers and strategic business partners, existing and prospective, making presentations in a uniquely New Zealand setting. It is the ideal leveraging opportunity.

One such commercial initiative is being organised by Ngai Tahu Holdings Corporation, which will use the Expo opportunity to send delegations from both its seafood and tourism companies. Ngai Tahu Holdings Corporation chief executive Greg Campbell told NZTE in its 5 May publication that China has the potential to contribute significantly to the company’s profitability, and ultimately benefit “generations of Ngai Tahu Whanui”.

New Zealand Pavilion's Key Sponsors
Ngai Tahu is a key sponsor of the New Zealand pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. The focus of its delegates will be to make and build relationships with major Chinese industry contacts in China. Such an approach is essential for gaining access to China's relationship-based business system, a feature of the culture that is as important now as it has always been.

New Zealand’s other key Expo 2010 sponsors are Solid Energy, Zespri, Fonterra, ANZ and Air NZ. They and many other business interests will make the most of Expo 2010 to build on what is already a hugely successful trading relationship. With a free trade agreement now in operation for three years, China has become New Zealand’s second largest trading partner and second largest export market.

New Zealand has got off to a great start at the Expo. Opera singer Zane Te Wiremu Jarvis and violinist Elena led New Zealand participation in the opening ceremony, and there has been a constant stream of visitors through the prominently-sited pavilion since the gates opened.

Reference

Nzte.govt.nz, The Expo Effect, Accessed 5 May 2010