Hastings councillor meets with visiting China Minister: 'He was impressed'

Hastings District councillor Kevin Watkins (right) meets with China's Minister of Culture and Tourism Luo Shugang (left) at the official opening of the China New Zealand Year of Tourism.

A Hastings councillor says getting to speak with China's Minister of Culture and Tourism Luo Shugang about the massive project Hastings has organised for the China New Zealand Year of Tourism was invaluable.

At the official opening of the China New Zealand Year of Tourism at Te Papa in Wellington on Saturday, Shugang met with Hastings District councillor Kevin Watkins.

"Having that time with the minister, who was over here from Beijing for the launch of the China and New Zealand's shared Year of Tourism, gave us the opportunity to explain what we were doing," Watkins said.

"He was impressed that Hastings was reaching out to every region in China."

The Amazing China Hastings Year of Tourism, endorsed by Tourism New Zealand and the Ministry of Business and Innovation, will see every one of China's 30-plus regions invited to send Hastings a small "treasure chest" containing something that uniquely represents their region.

In return, Hastings District Council will send a gift representing Hastings.

The exchange of gifts has been designed to become a competition later in the year, which will see Hastings secondary students asked to use their research skills to match the gifts with their regions of origin in China.

"Chinese media based both in New Zealand and China is already showing a great deal of interest. We don't believe anything like this has been done before," Watkins said.

An Auckland-based Chinese media company is recording events and milestones as they occur, with a view to making a video on the project.

The audience with Shugang came just a few weeks after the project was highlighted at the annual Sister Cities Conference in Palmerston North.

A speaker at that conference suggested the audience take particular note of the Hastings project, describing it as unique and an example of what local government can do with the opportunities that the China New Zealand Year of Tourism provides.

The China-New Zealand Year of Tourism 2019 protocol was signed by China's Premier Li Keqiang's and then-New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English in 2017, during a visit to New Zealand by Premier Li.

The vision for the national initiative was to provide opportunities for China and New Zealand to strengthen economic ties through tourism.

Watkins said today's students would undoubtedly interact more with China, in a way that previous generations have not needed to.

"Building relationships and cultural understanding at this age and stage means they will have a good basis on which to interact."

Watkins says Hastings already has strong economic ties with China, through its sister city relationship with Guilin, horticulture exports and international education, as well as many friendly-city relationships and sees it as an opportunity to build on that.