WELLINGTON: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday highlighted the crucial importance of the primary industries, implying that her government would invest huge resources in the areas for accelerating economic recovery.
“Whether it is keeping the milk flowing through our processing plants or livestock moving through our freezing works, the food and fibres sector has kept New Zealanders fed and maintained our vital export markets,” Ardern said during her speech at the second Primary Industry Summit held in Te Papa, national museum of New Zealand in Wellington, Xinhua news agency reported.
She estimated that the ambitious goals of the government Fit for a Better World roadmap would add 44 billion NZD (about US $30.36 billion) in export to the food and fibre sectors over the next ten years, and create 10 per cent more job opportunities in the primary sector in the country by 2030.
Ardern also mentioned the importance of New Zealand signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
“RCEP will increase opportunities for our exporters, cut red tape and offer one set of trade rules across the Asia Pacific region. This will result in around a 2 billion NZD increase to New Zealand’s GDP over all,” Ardern said.
“It will position New Zealand at the centre of economic cooperation initiatives in a region which accounts for 30 per cent of the world’s population, nearly a third of the world’s GDP and destination for 56 per cent of New Zealand’s total exports.”
Ardern and her government clearly saw huge opportunities by joining the trading group.
Building on the strength of the inaugural Summit in 2019, this year’s two-day Summit from November 23-24, themed supporting the adaption of New Zealand primary industries to the future, bringing several hundred of farmers and producers from the primary industries together with policy makers and key stakeholders.
The highlights of the summit is the Primary Industries Awards, which provides a chance to reward excellence and celebrate success throughout the primary industries value chain in New Zealand.
This year, Yashili NZ Dairy, a dairy factory based in Pokeno and subordinated to China’s Mengniu Dairy group, sponsored one of the six Awards, namely Science and Research Award.
On the premiere of Yashili, Andrew Hoggard, President of New Zealand Federated Farmers, told Xinhua: “As we all see China is taking more leadership role in the world dairy industry, and many Chinese companies ranked up the technologies in a number of aspects of milk production. We are happy here to see Yashili for the first time sponsor the Awards. They did a lot for the local communities.”
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