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Speaker 1: We've got the laser reporting from the New Zealand China Council.

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Speaker 1: Investment out of China increased by an average of nine percent.

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Speaker 1: This is between twenty fourteen twenty twenty four flat line.

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Speaker 1: Post COVID, China now ranks twelfth as I saw some

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Speaker 1: of New Zealand foreign direct investments. So what's going on here?

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Speaker 1: John McKinnon's the New Zealand China Council chair and is

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Speaker 1: with us. John, very good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 1: Something wrong?

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Speaker 2: No, not really. I think there's a number of reasons

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Speaker 2: why the flat lining has occurred. One is to do

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Speaker 2: with COVID, the second is probably to do with slow

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Speaker 2: down on the Chinese economy. The third and fourth would

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Speaker 2: probably be changes in the regulatory environments in both countries.

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Speaker 2: So we don't see it as something which is particularly worrying,

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Speaker 2: but it's part of the purpose of this reporter is

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Speaker 2: to provide people with the facts that they can make

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Speaker 2: their decisions on or judgments on.

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Speaker 1: Is it more them or more us or a bit

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Speaker 1: of both.

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Speaker 2: Well, it'd be hard to say. I would say probably

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Speaker 2: I'd attribute more to the COVID effect, which of course

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Speaker 2: applies to both countries. But also to the slowdown on

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Speaker 2: the Chinese economy. But there have been a number of

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Speaker 2: regulatory steps taken in China which have had an effect

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Speaker 2: of altering the way in which Chinese might be able

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Speaker 2: to expatiate their funds. And of course we've had changes here,

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Speaker 2: although they've been more designed to encourage people to invest

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Speaker 2: in use even than the reverse.

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Speaker 1: Right, So those Chinese changes, that's applicable to the whole world,

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Speaker 1: not just New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, absolutely, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And we've got the US as the number one direct

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Speaker 1: foreign investor. Now that's good, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Well, it is. I mean, if you look at the

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Speaker 2: stock though, the overwhelming stock of investment comes from Australia,

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Speaker 2: which is not particularly surprising the US. And there's a

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Speaker 2: big gap, so that I think the Australia's stock is

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Speaker 2: fifty four percent or something in the US is nine percent,

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Speaker 2: So there's quite a big gap there. China comes in

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Speaker 2: on that scale at about zero point nine percent, so

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Speaker 2: it's still still a long long way behind the big players.

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Speaker 1: You reckon it'll change or not. I mean, so in

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Speaker 1: other words, is that the regulations and the regulations are

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Speaker 1: the regulations. Therefore it's constrained or well, as we come

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Speaker 1: out of COVID and move on, things will have change again.

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Speaker 2: Well, we don't forecast a huge change. We can see

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Speaker 2: areas where there would be congruence or compatibility between New

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Speaker 2: Zealand and China in areas such as renewable energy or

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Speaker 2: food production, but it's hard to see how the current

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Speaker 2: settings are going to change in such a way that

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Speaker 2: there's an enormous boost. And I just don't think that's

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Speaker 2: the way that the Chinese people are looking at this country.

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Speaker 1: Okay, John, appreciate the insight. John McKinnon, who's the New

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Speaker 1: Zealand China Council shit for.

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