Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana speaks at the summit.
Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana speaks at the summit.
More Maori business groups are talking with potential Chinese investors and partners following a economic summit in Hawke's Bay, writes James Penn
Deals reaching hundreds of millions of dollars are expected to be negotiated between iwi business groups and cash-rich Chinese companies. The big investment push follows discussions at the recent Taniwha Dragon Economic Summit.
The summit, hosted during February in Hawke's Bay by Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated, saw about 250 business leaders and politicians from the respective communities come together to explore commercial collaboration potential.
A company based in Guangzhou has offered to sponsor the next summit and is keen to host it in China.
NKII chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana said the summit heralded a step-change in engagement levels.
"Maori incorporations and enterprise owners once reticent to join these discussions were full-bore with enthusiasm to add to the chorus of side-room meetings held throughout the summit."
One deal has already been transactioned, involving the purchase of a kiwifruit orchard in Hawke's Bay for $40 million, and the associated employment and engineering businesses worth $12 million.
The buyer was a Maori Trust, while Chinese importers expressed strong interest in developing a direct importing relationship.
Just this weekend, a small delegation of Maori left for Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Tokyo to visit four Chinese businesses and pursue joint ventures worth $60 million.
Joint ventures are the order of the day for many Maori business groups. One Hawke's Bay hapu group (with assets worth more than $70 million) were reportedly visited last Friday by a Chinese consortium looking for partners to build a hotel in the area.
A Shanghai-based fishing company wants to co-invest with a number of Maori entities in a joint venture without having to own fish quota themselves.
"We are still gathering information of how some of the side-room discussions have progressed between Maori and Chinese entities," says Tomoana, referencing a "business speed-dating" concept that was central to the summit's approach.
"But on the kumara vine we have ascertained that over 10 negotiations are in progress at the moment.
"There is also an increase in Maori to Maori discussions around scaling up and aggregating resources in order to meet the expectations of the Chinese market."
Shanghai Pengxin already has a strong history of partnership with Miraka, a Maori-owned milk processing factory that has rapidly expanded as a result of secure supply and purchase contracts with the corporate farming company.
The ambition of our summit was to explore if this ancient cultural connection could manifest itself into a modern trade and investment repatriation given New Zealand's growing commercial dependence and relationship with China.
Shanghai Cred, a real estate company, is reportedly planning one of New Zealand's most significant tourism investments with a proposed $1 billion Northland resort.
This follows its purchase of the Peppers Carrington golf course and resort in 2013, which led to a significant improvement in relations with local iwi Ngati Kahu, who had been in dispute with the previous owner regarding development plans on the site of an ancestor's burial cave. Shanghai Cred has joined New Zealand Maori Tourism in supporting the recently-launched Tai Tokerau Resort College in Paihia, targeting both Maori and Chinese students.
On the Pacific front, the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands has invited Ngati Kahungunu and other iwi fishing companies to help develop the fishing industry in the islands so they have the quality and quantity to export to China. "This speaks to the collaborative philosophy under-pinning many of the deals being struck between the Maori, Pacific, and Chinese business communities," says Tomoana.
Maori assets account for an estimated NZ$40 billion, including 40 per cent of New Zealand's export forest land, 40 per cent of the fishing quota, 10 per cent of kiwifruit, and a high percentage of land production.
Terry Lee, President of Overseas Investment at Pengxin Group, says "we would like to work with a Maori partner or a group of Maori suppliers who could continuously supply New Zealand products on a large scale, with good management of the quality. Cost of marketing and sales in China are big, so scale matters."
These flourishing business relationships are supported by foundations of cultural crossover.
"Maori can trace their DNA back to China over 6000 years ago," Te Ururoa Flavell, Maori Party co-leader, said at last year's Tripartite Economic Summit in Auckland. "This demonstrates Maori people have historically been resourceful, resilient, and adaptable."
Says Tomoana: "The ambition of our summit was to explore if this ancient cultural connection could manifest itself into a modern trade and investment repatriation given New Zealand's growing commercial dependence and relationship with China."
While the form of this can often be intangible or invisible, Tomoana emphasises understanding principles of land ownership that are central to Maori culture. "Maori are very unwilling land sellers as Papatuanuku is the matriarch of all whenua -- the Chinese acknowledge this and are prepared to lease land on a long-term intergenerational basis that satisfies Chinese need for a guaranteed supply of primary quality produce while Maori still retain ownership of land.
"From this understanding came a willingness to develop talks around the leasing of forests, farms, orchards, fish quota, and other assets -- and developing infrastructure around these assets the Chinese could readily invest in to boost productivity and value for joint benefits, without outlaying vast sums of money for land purchase," says Tomoana.
