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Brad Olsen: Infometrics Principal Economist on New Zealand and Australia meeting with South East Asian nations to boost business and security · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now there's a big event going on in Malaysia, bringing
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the three regions of New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia
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  Speaker 1: together and Informetric's principle. Economist Brad also never want to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: miss a party. Is at this party? Brad, Hello, good afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: So you guys are all there to kind of nut
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  Speaker 1: out how we all make money off each other?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, I mean I don't think that's the official word,
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  Speaker 2: but that is definitely part of it. I mean, you
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  Speaker 2: look at Asian and the sort of wider Southeast Asian region.
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  Speaker 2: It's important to New Zealand, it's important to Australia, and
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  Speaker 2: so I'm part here as part of a delegation with
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  Speaker 2: the Asia New Zealand Foundation to have some of those conversations. Normally,
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  Speaker 2: right for these international things, you get the diplomats in
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  Speaker 2: the room, you get the Prime Minister in that in
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  Speaker 2: the room. Those are good conversations, but sometimes you want
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  Speaker 2: to take it down a level. You want to get
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  Speaker 2: the business people, the academics, the policy researchers to actually
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  Speaker 2: sort of talk a little bit more, you know, unhinged
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  Speaker 2: almost about things. But I mean you look at the
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  Speaker 2: numbers and you sort of see why this sort of
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  Speaker 2: conversation is important for New Zealand. Over the life US
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  Speaker 2: twelve months, twenty six billion dollars worth of two way
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  Speaker 2: trade between Zion and New Zealand. If it was a country,
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  Speaker 2: it'd be our fourth largest trading partner. So all of
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  Speaker 2: that is critically important, and especially to time when we're
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  Speaker 2: trying to grow our exports. We're trying to think about
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  Speaker 2: who and how we trade with and diversify our options.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a good conversation to be a part of.
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  Speaker 1: So what business opportunities have we got in these regions
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  Speaker 1: that we are not already tapped into.
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  Speaker 2: I mean there's quite a few. There's obviously trying to
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  Speaker 2: continue to upgrade what we've already got. You know, if
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  Speaker 2: we look at what we trade often into Southeast Asia,
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  Speaker 2: it is the traditional exports for the New Zealand, the
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  Speaker 2: likes of you know, dairy tourism, fruits and meats and
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  Speaker 2: the like, but also importantly making sure we've got the
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  Speaker 2: ability to get the stuff we need in from the region.
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  Speaker 2: So the likes of a lot of our oil, a
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  Speaker 2: lot of our vehicles, a lot of our manufacturing comes
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  Speaker 2: from Southeast Asia into New Zealand, and that's also coming
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  Speaker 2: at a time when, of course you look at sort
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  Speaker 2: of the security issues around the world, there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of geopolitical positioning. There's concerns around you know, the US
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  Speaker 2: elections coming up, about a week of Chinese economy, and
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  Speaker 2: increasingly we're seeing more and more businesses across the world
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  Speaker 2: looking to Southeast Asia in terms of manufacturing, so they're
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  Speaker 2: not caught up in too much of these geopolitical issues.
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  Speaker 2: That means that if New Zealand wants to still maintain
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  Speaker 2: good supply chains and good ability to move stuff in
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  Speaker 2: and out of New Zealand and trade with the world,
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  Speaker 2: we've sort of got to be here. So I think
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  Speaker 2: a lot of it is about shoring up what we've
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  Speaker 2: currently got and ensuring that we're sort of part of
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  Speaker 2: the conversation rather than being bypassed.
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  Speaker 1: Are we all heavily heavily, heavily heavily reliant on China
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  Speaker 1: managing to make this thing work?
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  Speaker 2: In a sense? I think actually what's come out in
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  Speaker 2: the conversation so far today has been a little bit
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  Speaker 2: of a focus on well, how do we do it
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  Speaker 2: ourselves a little bit more, And that's not deliberately moving
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  Speaker 2: away from China or towards any other area. It's more
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  Speaker 2: saying well, instead of sort of trying to second guess
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  Speaker 2: how every other country in the world might do their
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  Speaker 2: own thing, and the worries around all that risk, like
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  Speaker 2: you say, of having eggs all in the one basket,
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  Speaker 2: How can New Zealand how can some of the other
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  Speaker 2: partners that we work with, like Arzion next year it's
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  Speaker 2: fifty years of you know, engagement and diplomacy with the region.
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  Speaker 2: That sort of says that actually, we can work on
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  Speaker 2: some quite cool stuff together that we can think about.
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  Speaker 2: Particularly New Zealand's got some good stuff in the green
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  Speaker 2: energy space that Southeast Asia is looking at. So I
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  Speaker 2: think there's a lot where we're offering up our expertise.
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  Speaker 2: We obviously have a lot of people that come, a
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  Speaker 2: lot of travelers from New Zealand to head out to
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  Speaker 2: the region as well, and then it's that sort of
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  Speaker 2: the goods and the services trade. So I think there
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  Speaker 2: are some big opportunities. I mean, you look at the
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  Speaker 2: numbers and I think this is the surprising challenge. New
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  Speaker 2: Zealand often doesn't think as much about sort of let's
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  Speaker 2: call it countries five through twenty. In terms of our
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  Speaker 2: top ten are or our top twenty trade opportunities, we
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  Speaker 2: think of the few big ones at the top, it's
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  Speaker 2: actually still a lot of those slightly smaller but still
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  Speaker 2: pretty big trade opportunities that we could grow to a
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  Speaker 2: whole new level.
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  Speaker 1: Brilliant stuff, Brad, enjoy yourself, really appreciate it. Thanks for
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  Speaker 1: talking to us from Malayia. That's Brad. Also in for
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  Speaker 1: Metris Principal Economists