International partnerships
Introduction |
Background |
Sister cities |
Friendship cities |
Strategic alliance |
Strategic environment |
Key themes |
Covec report |
Brisbane |
Busan |
Fukuoka |
Guangzhou |
Hamburg |
Los Angeles |
Shinagawa |
Tomioka |
Study visits
| Features
Features
Australia calling!
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), its ProjectLink initiative and the Industry Capability Network (ICN) are three key resources for accessing information and registering interest in Australian business opportunities.
These resources are particularly relevant following the Australian government's
AU$42 billion 'nation building' stimulus package, which focuses on infrastructure projects such as energy, public transport, water, hospitals and schools and may provide opportunities for Auckland businesses. The resilience of the Australian economy is well recognised, with the country expected to be one of the world's better performing economies over the next 12-18 months.
ProjectLink is an online subscription service, providing qualified pre-tender business opportunities that are tailored to subscriber needs in the engineering, building and construction and marine industries across Australia.
The ICN promotes New Zealand and Australian companies as project managers for large capital works projects in the southern hemisphere.
For further information, please see:
www.projectlink.co.nz
www.nzte.govt.nz
www.icn.govt.nz
www.economicstimulusplan.gov.au.
Building relationships leads to future sister city
business
The visit was arranged by Auckland City Council's international relations team and hosted by the Busan Foundation for International Activities, part of the Busan Metropolitan Government. The two cities have a sister city relationship spanning 13 years.
Busan, or Pusan as it is known in Korea, is South Korea's second largest city. The population has grown to almost 4 million, living in the valleys between steep pine clad hills or in modern developments near sandy beaches.
Busan boasts one of the five biggest ports in the world and is home to some of the largest ship building yards.
In recent years the city has moved in another direction, positioning itself as the showcase of Asian film-making through the Pusan International Film Festival, a 355 film, 70 country film festival that draws audiences approaching 200,000.
A highlight of the visit was a meeting, filmed for the Korean News Network, with Mr Dong-Ho Kim, the Film Festival Director who explained plans to expand the festival in the future.
"It was a rare opportunity to meet with the founder of the festival," says Michael Brook, Executive Manager of Film Auckland, "these occasions are an important part of building Auckland's profile in Busan."
Associated with the film festival is the Asian Film Market, a place where film makers, buyers and sellers do business. More importantly for Film Auckland was BIFCOM (the Busan International Film Commission and Industry Showcase), a trade show where destinations like Auckland seek to attract film shoots.
Film Auckland collaborated with Film New Zealand and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise's Korean Trade Commission to build a stand for attracting producers and it brought results, says
Michael.
"We have a strong lead for a major Korean film production for Auckland," he says, "these kinds of productions bring in millions of dollars, create employment and lift Auckland's profile as a great place to shoot."
Not all business was conducted on the stand, as Michael and Peter met with counterparts and film industry business leaders from Busan.
"We had discussions about business to business collaboration, training, and work experience exchange programmes," says Michael. "These are the kind of links that bring us closer together."
For his part Peter, deputy chair of Film Auckland, says building relationships is what will lead to future business. "The sister city relationship helps us build contacts that we can bring to the industry here in Auckland," he says, "there is already very positive feedback about Auckland, thanks in part to the number of young people who spent time as students here learning English. If we can build on this further, it's good for both cities."
Hamburg internship programme takes off
Martin is the first student to take part in the internship programme developed by council as part of the strategic alliance with Hamburg and in response to requests from German students for internships at council.
When an email was sent to students at his university about the programme, Martin saw a great opportunity to improve his English and gain overseas work experience.
"I wanted to come to New Zealand because I read that it was a nice country to visit. The people here are very friendly and all my colleagues at the council have been very helpful and welcoming," he said.
Martin spends his time at council working in the central area planning team based in the Civic Building
- he's been getting an idea of how city planning is done here in New Zealand and in turn, council staff have been able to learn from him. While in Germany, Martin worked part-time at Hamburg City Planning so he has been able to give council staff an insider's view of how things are done in Europe.
While Martin thinks the two countries approach to city planning is not all that different, he comments that there are a lot more meetings to attend in Hamburg.
"In Hamburg there are more people involved in each project which means a lot of meetings. While this is good in some ways, it also means that there is not as much time to do your work as there is here." He has also noticed that sustainability issues are not as much of a priority when city planning here as they are in Hamburg.
Martin has been able to see a lot of New Zealand in the short time he has been here. As well as working full-time, he's visited Rotorua, spent a weekend at Piha and seen dolphins in the Bay of Islands. He even plans to fit in a weekend trip to Fiji before he flies back to Hamburg on 25 September to finish his Bachelor Degree.
"I've really enjoyed my time in New Zealand. It has been a great learning experience and I really feel at home in Auckland now," says Martin.
"Two months is not long enough to spend here so I'll definitely be back."
Auckland's strategic alliance with Hamburg
In 2007, Auckland signed a strategic alliance with Hamburg to support opportunities for growth in key sectors and to encourage best practice leanings in a variety of areas including city development and sustainability. The strategic alliance is managed by the international relations team.
The internship programme is one of the key activities with Hamburg in 2009.
In February, a Hamburg producer visited Auckland as a guest speaker at the Documentary NZ Summit. An animated film from a group of students from Media Design School (Auckland) won third prize at the prestigious Hamburg Animation Award and one representative flew to Hamburg to attend the award ceremony and a workshop with Ice Age 2 and 3 co-producer Mike Thurmeier.
Hamburg has also selected New Zealand as their profile country for Filmfest Hamburg. New Zealand films will feature during the festival in September.
Pupils visit Japan for convention
Eight children from Avondale Intermediate got the chance of a lifetime to visit Fukuoka in Japan for the Asian-Pacific Children's Convention recently.
The event aims to foster multi-cultural understanding through a week-long exchange camp with children from over 40 countries, which includes a five-day home stay experience with a Japanese family.
"It was an excellent journey of learning for our eight ambassadors - their lives have changed from this experience," says the school's principal, Pauline Cornwell.
Auckland City Council works with a different intermediate school in the city each year to administer the programme.
Application packs for the 2010 convention will be sent out soon.
New rules a plus for Auckland-Brisbane relationship
Following the recent meeting between Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, the two leaders have confirmed new rules aimed at making trans-Tasman travel faster and trans-Tasman investment simpler.
Councillor Aaron Bhatnagar, Chair of Auckland City Council's City Development committee, believes the rules will strengthen the already successful 20-year partnership between Auckland and Brisbane.
"The new trans-Tasman policy will not only make travel between Auckland and Brisbane easier, but will also provide a great opportunity for sister city business to prosper."
Counterparts from Brisbane are equally pleased with the announcement.
"Brisbane enjoys a strong sister city relationship with Auckland, and these new rules will make it easier to travel to our trans-Tasman neighbour" said Councillor Graham Quirk, Deputy Mayor and councillor responsible for international relations and multicultural affairs.
Trans-Tasman travel will be one of the big winners, with passport scanning kiosks and new biosecurity guidelines allowing reduced queuing time at airports. Tourism Auckland chief executive, Graeme Osborne, says Australia is Auckland's largest visitor market and has the greatest international marketing focus.
"Process improvements that make travel between the two countries easier will have a positive impact on the region in terms of visitation and tourism spend," he says.
The number of Australian visitors to New Zealand for the year ended June 2009 was just over the one million mark, with Auckland having the greatest share of this market (34.2 per cent). Nearly a quarter of Australian arrivals into Auckland are from Queensland.
Figures from across the Tasman are also strong, and Brisbane Marketing Chief Executive Officer, John Aitken, is behind the new policy.
"The increased efficiencies in flights will increase the flow of activity particularly in mutually strong sectors, such as education, inward investment and tourism."
Mr Key and Mr Rudd also announced a substantial lift in the threshold at which investors will need approval to invest in Australia and New Zealand. These new rules are a step forward in creating a common border between New Zealand and Australia.
New Zealand classics profiled at internationally renowned film festival
17. Filmfest Hamburg
New Zealand is to be featured as the 'Deluxe' country at Filmfest Hamburg this year. Six New Zealand cinema classics dating from 1964 to 1987 will have their German premiere at the festival from 24 September to 1 October 2009, showcasing our film potential and locations to an international audience of approximately 35,000.
Auckland City Council lobbied for New Zealand's selection as this year's feature country. The council is working with Film Auckland, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, the New Zealand embassy in Germany, the New Zealand Film Archive and the New Zealand Film Commission to maximise the opportunity and attract international film collaborations. Filmfest Hamburg Deluxe will showcase lesser-known films to demonstrate the breadth of New Zealand's film industry that goes beyond the internationally famous works of Jane Campion (The Piano) and Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings 1-3).
Auckland and Hamburg signed a strategic alliance in 2007 to support opportunities for growth in key sectors and to encourage best practice learning. From the outset, a special focus was placed on creative industries. Projects include annual involvement in the Hamburg Animation Award, a guest speaker from Hamburg at the DOCNZ summit 2009 and a best practice videoconference on creative industries between industry experts from both cities.
Hamburg is a major European media centre and hub of film and television production with more than 1,140 companies working in the film industry. New Zealand is a popular destination for German production companies, especially those producing television commercials. In addition, a film co-production agreement between the two countries entitles German-New Zealand co-productions to apply for the New Zealand Screen Production Incentive Fund (SPIFF). Whale Rider, Flight of the Albatross, Among the Cinders, Te Rua and several TV productions are examples of German-New Zealand collaborations.
The Auckland region is a key global film destination and the city plays a pivotal role in the nation's film industry. Auckland is home to over half of the country's screen production employment, and three quarters of national television employment. In 2007, the screen production industry in Auckland city generated GDP of $377 million and the film sector continues to grow. Through sponsorship of
Film Auckland, Auckland City Council
is committed to a sustainable screen production industry.
Auckland animation a hit in Hamburg
 |
Cameron Smith (fourth person from the right)
with all winners of the main competition at the
award ceremony in Hamburg. |
 |
The animated short film Time to Fly by a group of Auckland students was awarded third place at the prestigious Hamburg Animation Award in Germany last month.
Cameron Smith, a member of the winning team from Media Design School, attended the award ceremony and collected the €2000 prize money on behalf of his group. The prize package also included a seminar with
'Ice Age 3' co-director Mike Thurmeier and a special screening of Time to Fly.
Auckland City Council formed a strategic alliance with Hamburg in 2007 to support opportunities for key sectors, and annually promotes the Hamburg Animation Award. This year, 15 out of the 70 entries featured at the international competition were from Auckland.
"The strong turnout of Auckland city entries, and the success of Time to Fly showcases the skilled workforce and high calibre of tertiary education within Auckland," says Councillor Aaron Bhatnagar, chairperson City Development committee.
"Congratulations to Cameron and his team. We've all known the film sector in New Zealand is thriving, especially in Auckland, but an award like this goes some way to verifying the talent we have around us."
All 15 Auckland entries featured at a local film night this month, and received special prizes from industry sponsors Flux Animation Studio, Toon Boom and C4. Grace by Niki Hiini from Unitec was selected the top animation for the local competition, with Loop by students from Media Design School receiving second prize. Pride Comes Before A Fall (Lifeway College) was awarded highly commended in the Auckland competition. All local entries are currently featured on C4's website.
Film and screen production, a sub-sector of the creative industries sector, continues to be a driving economic force for Auckland, with three quarters of New Zealand's screen production companies active in Auckland city, employing around 46 per cent of the industries national workforce.
In 2007, Auckland city's screen production industry generated gross output of $343 million, and a GDP of $377 million.
Updated November 2009
