Speech
Dinner for Singapore’s Minister of Community Development, Youth and Sport
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Kia ora everyone.
Can I begin by welcoming you Hon Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister of Community Development, Youth and Sport for Singapore and Mrs Joy Balakrishnan for this dinner and to thank everyone for accepting the invitation of Susan and I for you to be here to help us welcome you Minister, Mrs Balakrishnan and your party. Each of you has some kind of linkage with Singapore and more than one of you with each other. Dealing with you alphabetically after our guests of honour, you include Professor Bernard Brown, whom I share as a renowned law teacher with Your Excellency Justice Rubin, High Commissioner for Singapore to New Zealand. Then Arthur Chin Manager of the ANZ National Asian Banking and spouse Jenny Lin. Then Simone French of the Government House Planning and Management staff, followed by Warwick Hawker a senior new Zealand Foreign Service official now conducting the Ministry’s substantial operation in Auckland. Lex Henry, legal counsel and erstwhile merchant banker in Singapore and member of the Asia New Zealand Foundation board and Mrs Lyn Henry; Koh Peng Keng Director of the sports Division of the Ministry of Community Development and Tan Kok Tong, Sport Development Officer in that Ministry; Vino Ramayah, lawyer and businessman in New Zealand and Singapore and member of the Asia New Zealand Foundation board and your wife Reena Ramayah; Jonathan Schwass of the Asia Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade - please all feel welcome.
Dr Balakrishnan, I want to register thanks for your visit to us in New Zealand. As Governor-General, my wife, Susan, and I have the privilege to declare that to you, on behalf of all New Zealanders. Those best wishes also reflect our personal thanks for the support you gave to us when we visited Singapore as state guests in May.
Additionally, as Patron of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, it was a pleasure to welcome your delegation as you accompanied the Youth Olympic Flame to New Zealand at a pōwhiri at the Manukau City Council Civic Chambers this morning.
The eyes of the world will be on Singapore when the flame is used to ignite the cauldron and begin the inaugural Youth Olympic Games on August 14. With some thousands of youth athletes and officials attending , it will clearly be one of the biggest international sporting events for young people to be held this year. The Games are an opportunity to foster understanding between teenagers from different nations, cultures and ethnic groups and inspire them to embrace the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect for others.
The journey of the Flame is also yet another reminder of the many strong links between Singapore and New Zealand.
That relationship is based on friendship and co-operation and it remains one of New Zealand’s most comprehensive arrangements. It has been the foundation of new things such as membership of APEC since its inception, the 2005 trade agreement between New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei and Chile and the prospect of an even larger Trans-Pacific Economic Partnership Agreement which is on the horizon.
While these relationships (and I have not mentioned other linkages in defence and education for example) are important, what gives them real life are the people-to-people linkages. Whether it is in business, politics, education, tourism, sport or culture, New Zealand and Singapore hold a shared view that building strong relationships is vital.
Sport, of course, provides many opportunities for people to interact and to learn of another culture. In addition to the young New Zealand athletes attending the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, sportsmen and women from both our nations will attend the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October. Likewise, New Zealand will host the Rugby World Cup next year and we look forward to seeing rugby fans from Singapore visiting our shores for that event.
In welcoming you and your delegation to New Zealand, Minister, I wish to emphasise the great value New Zealand places on its friendship with Singapore this having been so successful because it has rested on several foundations and because it has never been allowed to stagnate. Each new initiative has served as a stepping stone to yet further developments. On that basis, New Zealand looks forward to deepening its engagement with Singapore.
Let us enjoy our dinner together. Thank you for being here.