Fran O'Sullivan: Too little, too late for visiting statesmen

New Zealand is firmly on the dance card for touring international statesmen.

Pakistani strongman General Pervez Musharraf - who arrived in Auckland last night - is the latest in a stellar cast of predominantly Asian political leaders or statesmen to arrive on official visits this year.

Once again invitations have gone out to a raft of this country's senior business people and local worthies to attend a state dinner in Auckland tonight.

The usual suspects - such as dairy giant Fonterra and government favourite Navman - have been mustered to host Musharraf and his entourage on site visits tomorrow so they can look at areas where New Zealand boasts an international comparative advantage and examine any joint venture opportunities.

But once again the dinner invitations have been issued at the last minute - too late for a number of senior Auckland business people to alter their diaries.

And there is precious little evidence of a concentrated post-visit strategy to ensure New Zealand makes the most to obtain a domestic economic spinoff from this extraordinary plethora of visiting statesmen.

The strategic rationale for Musharraf's visit is still not clear. The Pakistani President, who came to power in military coup in 1999, clearly seeks a degree of international legitimacy.

He has yet to move his country towards full democracy.

Despite playing an integral role in the war on terror by swinging in behind US President George W. Bush's push to eliminate the Taleban, there remain questions over whether Musharraf's positioning is permanent or a deliberate shuffle to keep the US from directing greater scrutiny to Pakistan.

Unlike other Asian leaders who came here as the result of a personal invitation from Prime Minister Helen Clark to help build support for our push to join the East Asian summit later this year, Musharraf's visit has been directly initiated by his own officials as a follow-on from an Australian sojourn.

But nevertheless an economic rationale has since been developed: potential dairy technology transfers or more opportunities for export education providers.

But what is on offer is small beer indeed.

The leaders of Indonesia and Malaysia, who visited earlier in 2005, are expected to support New Zealand's push for a formal invitation to the East Asian summit - so their visits can be justified for an expected political payoff.

The shifting diplomatic agenda means New Zealand wants to be admitted into the Asian camp out of fear it will otherwise be locked out of the developing trade bloc. But at a strictly bilateral business level the upside is less convincing.

Musharraf, like Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Baddawi and Bahrain's Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa who also visited New Zealand earlier this year, is accompanied by a heavyweight business delegation.

But, as with his predecessors, the business community has not received enough notice about the makeup of the delegation to do its own due diligence on whether it is even worth cosying up to visiting Pakistanis, yet alone make time for one-on-one meetings. Nor has there been any formal briefings to key export players over the business rationale for the Musharraf visit.

This lack of professionalism on the New Zealand side can be put down to three factors: Firstly, the repeated failure of the Prime Minister to ensure the New Zealand business community gets adequate advance notice. Typically, the invitations do not get issued until the week the event occurs .

Clark is well-known for playing her cards close to her chest and her office will not confirm whether she will accept invitations until within three weeks of an event date - if then.

She also exerts a tight control over the confirmation of upcoming visits with officials under riding instructions not to go on record until the official announcement.

This reaches the point of absurdity as most visiting leaders tack on their visits to an Australian trip - and announce their plans well before confirmation occurs here as with China's No 2 Wu Bangguo.

This tendency extends to offshore visits by Clark where Chinese officials were left dangling for weeks waiting on the Prime Minister to confirm the dates for her recent Beijing trip.

The second factor is the failure of officials to ensure the relevant business players are mustered to meet visiting business delegations. Malaysian Prime Minister Badawi brought with him a team of senior Cabinet Ministers, departmental heads and business players to Auckland.

But once again, invitations were last minute. Many CEOs trading with Malaysia - and hoping to springboard further in Asia on the back of an Asean free trade deal - could not make the event. And once again an opportunity to make significant top-level contacts and clear obstacles to successful bilateral trade was not sufficiently harnessed.

The third fact is follow-through.

Take the visit of the Bahraini Prime Minister. A co-operation agreement was signed but again short notice.

Again issues over whether the relevant business people were mustered.

But this time round it is the visiting politician who has let it be known of his disappointment at the failure of New Zealand to follow-through on particular opportunities for cheap fuel.

Even visiting politicians need outcomes to justify their international travels.

* Fran O'Sullivan is assistant editor of the Herald specialising in foreign affairs.