Geyser City gears up for Apec sideshow

STACEY BODGER reports on a large but low-key officials' meeting which is about to descend on Rotorua.

ROTORUA - While the hype of Apec engulfs Auckland the real deals are about to be struck in the peace and quiet of Rotorua. On Tuesday, about 750 senior officials from 21 "economies" will descend on Rotorua for nine days of intense discussion.

They are Government officials and advisers, experts in areas such as trade, who will lay the foundations for the likes of Bill Clinton and Jenny Shipley to debate and rubber stamp at the Apec leaders' meeting in Auckland in September.

Topics for discussion include the advancement of free trade, the reduction of tariffs, and economic and technical cooperation between Asia and Pacific countries.

But do not expect to see armed police lining the streets while motorcades roar through the city - most in Rotorua do not even know Apec is coming to town.

Apec Task Force conference coordinator Jane Anderson and her team have spent four months fine-tuning plans for the senior officials' meeting.

It is the third and final one before the leaders' meeting and is set to be a low-key affair.

Rotorua is the only provincial area to be given the honour of playing host to Apec functions, which, say the city's leaders, shows that it has the infrastructure to cope with such a high-flying event.

The Apec Task Force predicts that the meeting will inject about $1.8 million in total sales to the Bay of Plenty economy, through the hospitality, convention, retail and possibly tourism industries. Rotorua business people are quick to acknowledge the immediate effects it will generate.

But they also hope the attention centred on Rotorua, and contacts made during the meeting, will yield long-term, flow-on gains to boost business.

Ross Stanway, Rotorua District Council business development manager, holds high hopes for a regional business conference, held in the middle of the officials' meeting.

More than 200 business people from the Bay of Plenty will gather to hear speakers and to develop links with their counter-parts and Apec officials.

"We're excited about the platform that meeting is going to lay and are using Apec as a base to bounce-start other networks to benefit business in the area," said Mr Stanway.

Rotorua mayor Grahame Hall said the council had not allocated any special funding to the officials meeting but would share the cost of a reception being held again, to develop contacts.


"It is a very exciting time for the city. In return for hosting these people we do expect them to come back and visit in return and for our profile to be further boosted overseas."

Tourism Rotorua manager Oscar Nathan shares a similar view: "We have a large profile already overseas but this gives us a chance to capitalise on it from the attention it should receive." But the majority of people in Rotorua have no idea they are playing host to such powerful dignitaries.

Most people polled by the New Zealand Herald yesterday knew that Auckland was gearing up for Apec but were puzzled to learn about the officials' meeting. People who were aware of it had little idea of what the purpose was, or who would attend.

Senior Sergeant Les Paterson, of Rotorua, head of the police taskforce for the meeting, said this was perhaps because of the understated nature of the conference.

He could not reveal the number of police dedicated to Apec duties in Rotorua because of security issues.

But he said none of the dignitaries qualified for international protected-person status.

There would be no motorcades or road closures and the police presence should go largely unnoticed.

"We want to impress that it's nowhere near the magnitude of the operation that will take place in Auckland. Things should happen as normal."