North Shore City - Qingdao Sister City Signing Ceremony
May I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language. Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the afternoon (Sign)
May I specifically greet you: Your Worships Andrew Williams and Xia Geng, the Mayors of North Shore City in Auckland and of Qingdao respectively; Your Excellency Tony Browne, New Zealand's Ambassador to China; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen. And in the context of this afternoon's gathering, may I add the greeting: Ni Hao.
My wife Susan and I thank you for the invitation to attend the signing of a sister city agreement between NorthShore and Qingdao cities.
For Qingdao, I am advised it will be the city's 14th sister city relationship and that North Shore will join the ranks of Southampton in Britain, Bilbao in Spain, Long Beach in the United States and Odessa in the Ukraine to name but a few. For NorthShore, however, it will be just its second sister city agreement.
Even at a cursory glance, the relationship appears to be a good fit. Both NorthShore and Qingdao are coastal cities and both have significant marine industries.
The relationship is also not one that has been entered into with haste, but has been investigated over the last three years, with delegations travelling in both directions to explore aspects of a possible connection.
I recently addressed the New Zealand Sister Cities Conference in Rotorua and stressed that just like any relationship in life, for sister city agreements to work and to provide benefits to both sides, they must be based on a range of contacts. The temptation, especially when attempting to justify such relationships, is to push the economic and business benefits from the outset.
While such links are important, they are unlikely to develop sustainable long-term relationships beyond one-off projects unless they are placed in the context of wider social and cultural links. More often than not, successful and strong business links will develop after there have been visits in each direction by education, cultural, social and sporting groups.
It was with pleasure then that I was advised that in addition to delegations focused on business and governance, one also included a group of school principals and international student teachers. I trust this will be the beginning of many more such connections. Indeed, I hope also that the young people of Qingdao will take advantage of the opportunities of the working holiday scheme when it comes into force on 1 October.
Such connections are particularly important because they allow greater people-to-people contacts. One of the significant issues of our time is that in an increasingly connected world, the level of communication across cultures is much higher than ever before.
As many examples in both recent and past history reveal, just meeting people from other cultures is not sufficient. People have to get to know those who are different from themselves if there is to be real understanding across cultural differences.
That, I believe, is one of the greatest values of sister city relationships. Such people-to-people contacts played an important role in the recent signing of the Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and China.
And I might add that understanding is what is also at the heart of the Olympic movement, which China and the world are currently celebrating.
As former South African President Nelson Mandela said before the last Olympic Games in Athens: "For seventeen days, they are roommates. For seventeen days, they are soulmates. And for twenty-two seconds, they are competitors. Seventeen days as equals. Twenty-two seconds as adversaries. What a wonderful world that would be. That's the hope I see in the Olympic Games."
I trust that this agreement will result in many years of fruitful collaboration and interaction and I congratulate everyone involved in bringing this sister city relationship to fruition.
And on that note, I will close in New Zealand's first language, Maori, by offering greetings and wishing you good health and fortitude in your endeavours. No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.