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Speaker 1: Prime Minister heading to China this week, where he'll be

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Speaker 1: meeting with President Shujing Ping and Beijing. Ahead of the visit,

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Speaker 1: the government tweaked visa settings to allow Chinese travelers in

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Speaker 1: with a current visa who come from Australia. So in

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Speaker 1: other words, the Australians do the checks and we piggyback

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Speaker 1: off them. Alistair Crozy is executive director of the New

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Speaker 1: Zealand China Council. With me this morning, Alista, good morning,

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Speaker 1: Good morning Ryan. We'll try to take notice of that tweak,

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Speaker 1: because it is a tweak. We're not letting them in

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Speaker 1: wholesale without a visa.

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Speaker 2: Sure, we'll look overnight the evidences that they already have.

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Speaker 2: Since the announcement was made, search for New Zealand travel

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Speaker 2: on some of the big platforms like Sea trip has

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Speaker 2: increased markedly. So yes, these things although they as you say,

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Speaker 2: it's not removing visas altogether by any means, it's certainly

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Speaker 2: a splash and it will get a lot of attention

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Speaker 2: this week.

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Speaker 1: That's good news. What about the because the argument, while

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Speaker 1: we don't just allow them and carte blanche on visa

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Speaker 1: free is because of the number of refugees do you

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Speaker 1: know what the situation is, what the outcome might be

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Speaker 1: if we did it.

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Speaker 2: I won't go into that on visa settings. I mean,

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Speaker 2: every country's got to balance their security settings with rolling

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Speaker 2: out the maths of tourists and visitors, not just the China.

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Speaker 2: We do that for many countries, and many countries do

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Speaker 2: that for us as well. So the main thing for

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Speaker 2: this week is that it's a positive step in the

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Speaker 2: right direction towards hopefully recovering some of those Chinese tourist

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Speaker 2: numbers from before COVID.

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Speaker 1: Good pr exercise for us to be up in China

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Speaker 1: at the moment. What about some of the tensions that

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Speaker 1: we've had. I mean, obviously this is going to be

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Speaker 1: a leader to leader or bilateral meeting between the two.

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Speaker 1: Some of the live firing drills, you know, we had

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Speaker 1: our navy frigates in the straight Taiwan straight last year.

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Speaker 1: I mean, all of those things will come up.

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Speaker 2: And from that perspective, you know, it's nothing beats a

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Speaker 2: face to face, is it like this? It's a chance

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Speaker 2: they're our prime minister to meet not just President Shei,

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Speaker 2: but also Premier Le Chang, and look, both sides freely

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Speaker 2: admit that there are going to be differences between two

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Speaker 2: countries like you Eland and China. This provides an opportunity

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Speaker 2: to discuss them face to face, and I think the

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Speaker 2: key thing is that both sides will remain diplomatic and

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Speaker 2: respectful and hopefully clear the year on some of those issues.

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Speaker 1: Where are some of the areas of opportunity, economic opportunity

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Speaker 1: that you think we should be tackling.

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Speaker 2: Oh, look, there's still opportunities in China across the board.

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Speaker 2: I mean the Prime Minister is taking a business delegation

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Speaker 2: of almost thirty people. They're focused on everything from you know,

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Speaker 2: your primary produce exports to your middle class consumers, not

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Speaker 2: just in the big cities now, but in those what

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Speaker 2: they call second and third te cities. They're coming up

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Speaker 2: fast in terms of spending power, but also taking a

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Speaker 2: strong delegation representing our education sector and also our tourism

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Speaker 2: sector as we've been discussing.

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Speaker 1: Alist appreciate your time this morning, thanks to your comments.

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Speaker 1: Alistair Crozier the executive director the New Zealand China Council.

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