"With any problem of food safety which comes up, the public would like to know that it will not be repeated and what measures will be put in place to ensure future incidents do not happen," he said.
"Consumers in Hong Kong are quite sophisticated, so they will need to know what measures have been taken to remedy the situation."
So was in Wellington to talk about ways Hong Kong can assist New Zealand firms looking to expand into mainland China and the Asean region.
He compared the city's role to the adaptors travellers carry to enable them to use electric appliances in other countries' power sockets.
"We are the universal adaptor."
The city was well placed, he said, as China sought to expand the services component of its economy - currently 43 per cent of gross domestic product as against 70 per cent in New Zealand and 93 per cent in Hong Kong, the quintessential service economy.
"We see our role as providing the professional services to introduce more trade into mainland China."
Hong Kong has had many years to establish, and re-establish, relationships on the mainland and master its regulatory environment.
So cited the wine trade as an example of how it added value to third party traders. It has reduced the duty on wine to zero and put in place a storage certification programme which ensures that wine is stored at the right temperature and humidity.
As wine flows through Hong Kong into the burgeoning Chinese market it has become the largest auctioning centre for wine in the world.
New Zealand wine exports have doubled in the past four or five years.
"And that is only the tip of the iceberg. Per capita consumption in China is still fairly low by Western standards so there are boundless opportunities for New Zealand producers to tap into this market."
