KEY POINTS:
The "Godfather" of the Chinese real estate industry is among a number of leading Chinese and Hong Kong business people attending a conference next month in Auckland which is one of a couple of initiatives underway to develop New Zealand's business ties with China.
Among the 60 Chinese business people and officials attending the International Sustainable Cities Forum, is Wang Shi, chairman of Shenzhen-listed Vanke - China's largest residential property developer with a market capitalisation of about US$10 billion.
Aside from his "Godfather" status, Wang has also been likened by Time magazine to US property magnate Donald Trump while the New York Times has called him a "tycoon adventurer in the mould of Sir Richard Branson".
Big as Wang's company is, it is dwarfed by China Resources Holdings, whose chairman Song Lin will also be at the conference, according to organisers, the Chinese New Zealand Herald.
China Resources Holdings, the parent company for a string of Hong Kong and mainland China-based companies whose businesses include a large portfolio of coal-fired powerstations, microelectronics, and real estate.
Its assets were recently valued at HK$240 billion ($NZ60bn)
The four day forum "aims to provide window of opportunity for visiting Chinese entrepreneurs and investors to explore commercial and business opportunities in New Zealand as well as to understand New Zealand's approach to sustainable development", organisers Raymond Chen and Maggie Chen said.
The conference will also offer New Zealand business people a chance "to learn more about the opportunities, as well as challenges, of doing business in China".
Meanwhile, Massey University and the Asia New Zealand Foundation have just launched a survey "to find out how the Chinese do business in Auckland".
The study's head, Professor Paul Spoonley of Massey's College of Humanities and Social Sciences in Albany, said: "This will be of mutual benefit in helping to grow and enhance business dealings across ethnic lines and in breaking down the prejudice that prohibits Chinese advancement."
