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World changing Kiwi

China signed the upgrading protocol of its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with New Zealand (via video link) on Tuesday 26th January. The new commitments show a positive sign of the Sino-NZ partnership to combat the pandemic as well as to support multilateralism and free trade. The New Zealand Ambassador to China, Clare Fearnley stated, “both NZ and Chinese exporters will benefit from the upgraded trade rules through easier processes, reduced compliance costs, and expanded market access in some areas.”

Hainan also issued the industry catalogue for its Free Trade Port (effective starting from 1st Jan 2021), which focuses on tourism, modern services, and new & high-tech industries. This is a clear signal of China’s commitment for opening up the country further and facilitating free trade and investment.

The upgraded FTA gave us a head start to 2021, and we can certainly expect rapid growth in bilateral trade & investment between China and New Zealand this year. 

CONTRIBUTOR

Ciara Liu

Regional Director, China

Kea New Zealand

Kea member



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Filed Under: Businesses going global, Global Kiwi, World changing Kiwi Tagged With: Business Growth, China, Ciara Liu, Insights, Livestreaming, Regional

January 2021 hit hard. Although the grey days are getting longer and a flush of snow has brought some joy, we are all feeling the effects of Covid-19 groundhog days/weeks/months/quarters.  Stronger measures imposed by Governments around UK & Europe have seen retail and hospitality sectors closed (except for some takeaways and home deliveries). Schools remain closed to all but essential worker children, and parents are not only juggling their own virtual schedules, but those of their children.  Work days are longer, where we have no commuting time, this has been replaced with more ‘e-meetings’.  Parents are playing catch up on either side of the day with missed hours trying to navigate and fulfil their small people’s needs.

We now have an established habit of buying online and direct from producers.  We dearly miss the ability and option of browsing in stores and aisles, discovering new products, range extensions, and seasonal offerings.  Digital presence and cut through is paramount. 

57% of consumers now order at least some items direct from producers – a trend that will remain beyond Covid-19. “85 million parcels have been delivered direct to customers by manufacturers this year and that volume will grow almost 30% by 2023”  Lee Collinson, Head of Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics, Barclays

D2C will remain key for many and having a clear strategy to support this, difficult whilst being so many miles away for Kiwi businesses, but vital if you want to drive revenue streams from this region with so many retail and wholesale options limited.

Supermarkets continue to see steady growth. Specialist online retail is also increasing at around 34%, with food and drink retailers enjoying a boost. Unsurprisingly travel has been hit, but some early bounce back with confidence of the vaccine rollout and look to summer holidays/staycations.

Brexit has also brought about much confusion and frustration around the country, and also for our exporters as everyone tries to get to grip with what new requirements, labelling and logistics changes there have been.  Difficulty is emerging with movement of products to Europe from the UK and best ways to navigate this.  Time for our exporters to be even closer to their markets and partners and they’re understanding that things will take time to resolve.

It may be appropriate for business operations to be reassessed, explore new opportunities, evaluate where you operate from and how you go to market. Focus on your end customer and who they are, what their buying journey is and try to understand what they are facing in their day to day lives. The reality of the deal means that yes Brexit negotiations are officially at an end, but the UK & EU will now be engaged in negotiations of one kind or another for some years to come across many sectors.

Its not surprising that the sentiment is of frustration here and there is no clear end in sight. Dates are swirling around of a ‘hope’ to a return to school and some easing of restrictions on the 8th March in the UK. A dangerous date given its International Women’s Day, there could be the wrath of all mothers!

CONTRIBUTOR

Ciara Liu

Regional Director, China

Kea New Zealand

Kea member

Filed Under: Businesses going global, Global Kiwi, World changing Kiwi Tagged With: Business Growth, Europe, Insights, Regional, Sara Fogarty, UK

GMRI’s world class research team

You were recognised at Kea’s World Class NZ Awards in 2015 for your work in the understanding and treatment of strawberry birthmarks (a common vascular tumour). What have you been working on since then at the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute?

We have been investigating cancer based on the cancer stem cell concept of cancer. We have found cancer stem cells, the proposed origin of cancer, in many types of cancer and that they express the renin-angiotensin system. This has led to the development of a novel cancer treatment using a combination of repurposed low-cost commonly available oral medications, which is undergoing testing in a clinical trial on a severe brain cancer, glioblastoma. Interim results show promising outcomes.  A similar clinical trial for malignant melanoma has recently commenced. Subject to funding being available, we intend to extend the trial to include other cancer types.

Why is this research so important and what impact does it have on a global scale?

The treatment used in the clinical trials involves low-cost, off-patent repurposed oral medications that are commonly available. They have very low side effects. Because the treatment involves inexpensive medications it has the potential to achieve substantial cost and equity benefits.

Conversation and collaboration is always key when it comes to success. How can Kea’s World Class NZ network and global community support these novel cancer trials?

Because the medications are low-cost, there is a limited commercial incentive to fund drug-repurposing.  Philanthropic and government support to undertake the trial programme is therefore vital. 

We have learnt throughout 2020 with the COVID pandemic, that global collaboration is key to unlocking pathways to success -not only with scientific endeavour, but with engaging with those, governments and otherwise, who can fund critical clinical research. We wholeheartedly encourage that collaboration.

If you’re interested in getting involved, you can find out more about the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute and donate here.

CONTRIBUTOR

Swee Tan

Founder and Executive Director

Gillies McIndoe Research Institute

World Class New Zealander

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Filed Under: Businesses growing at home, World changing Kiwi Tagged With: Cancer, Doctor, Medicine, Swee Tan, WCNZ, World Class New Zealand

Can you tell us a bit about your professional background

I’m currently the General Manager of Women’s Rugby for World Rugby based in Dublin.   I moved from Wellington New Zealand to Dublin in January 2017 to take up this newly created role with a vision of Accelerating the Global Development of Women in Rugby.  

Prior to this I had a long professional and governance career in New Zealand mostly in senior leadership positions within sport management. I attended Lincoln University studying sport and recreation management and went from there to complete a Masters Degree at Victoria University in Recreation and Leisure Studies.  I started my professional sport career with the Hillary Commission for Sport and Recreation, then looked after the investment and performance of high-performance teams and athletes at the New Zealand Sports Foundation. 

From there I was appointed as a GM Sport and Performance at the crown entity which is now called Sport New Zealand.  My accountabilities within the sport and recreation sector varied from working on improving the capability of national governing bodies through to establishing the New Zealand Academy of Sport which was the precursor to High Performance Sport New Zealand.  When I took a hiatus from working in sport, I worked for an extended period at ACC firstly as the General Manager of Injury Prevention and then was the General Manager Corporate Services.  From there I went into Economic Development in Wellington and after that did a series of long-term transformational type projects.  One incredibly special long-term contract had me involved for two years as the project director to develop Te Auaha in Wellington.  I had the privilege to work with passionate leaders within the education and art industries to help to establish this amazing incubator of future creative excellence in the heart of Wellington.  

How do you work to use your position as a means to create social change?

World Rugby as an International Federation is a membership based organisation with six regional associations and more than 120 full time member unions.  Women in Rugby is the strategic growth area for the game globally and, as such, my role has me working with targeted unions and regions to develop opportunities for girls and women to get involved in the game.  In many of these unions/countries involvement in sport provides the opportunity to dramatically improve the current and future quality of life of both individuals and communities.  This can be from both a physical and mental wellbeing.  Sport can create supportive communities and individual leadership development opportunities.  Sport is an agent for social change its often the circuit breaker which in many instances can completely alter a young girl’s career and or life projection.   You can see a great example of this by looking at the story of Sweta Shahi from India.  

Much of my time is devoted to working to develop women leaders globally supporting them to also support and grow other opportunities for women and girls.   We currently have 49 women from 40 plus countries on executive leadership scholarships all with a vision to provide inspirational leadership at the highest level. 

Rugby has many strong partnerships with organisations that see the benefit of working with sport for social change. Two of these that immediately come to mind are the long term partnerships with such as ChildFund and rugby unions in Asia and UN Women in working with Oceania Rugby to support women in rugby in Pacific. 

What was it like taking on a head role as a woman in what must have been a male-dominated industry at the time?

World Rugby has gone through transformational governance and leadership reform since I arrived in 2017.  I remember just after I was appointed I was invited to attend a World Rugby Council meeting in Buenos Aires and several of the 30 male council members commented to me over dinner how unusual it was to have any females in attendance.  Whilst gender diversity existed within the actual World Rugby staff based in Ireland, globally from senior leadership and governance perspective women were far and few between.  To be honest, I was familiar with this type of work environment as I worked in high Performance Sport for so many years and there were and still are very few women in senior leadership roles working at an elite sport performance level in New Zealand.  As the head of the NZ Academy of Sport I was often the only woman in the room.

I arrived at World Rugby at a time that the organisation was ready and committed for change.  Rugby and in particular women’s rugby had just had its first global exposure at the Olympics Games in Rio in 2016 and it was a huge success.  This Olympic impetus was a catalyst for impressive growth particularly in non-traditional rugby markets. Women’s Rugby in terms of participation was on the rise with significant growth year on year globally (by 2019 there were 9.6million players recorded globally, with female players accounting for 2.7million (28%).  By the end of my first year the World Rugby Council adopted a new eight year global strategy to normalise women’s involvement in rugby.  One strand of this strategy was to demonstrate inspirational leadership on and off the field and this meant a commitment to drive diversity. In 2017 Council agreed the strategy they also changed the constitution to bring on an additional 17 women council members.  This decision led by Sir Bill Beaumont overnight changed the percentage of women on council from 0% to 35%.

How have you pushed for diversity within World Rugby since you began in your role?

This is a core aspect of my role to work with World Rugby the organisation and the world of rugby our members to drive diversity.  At an International Federation level we have made incredible progress, following the decision to transform the council representation we also put in place a pipeline programme to develop more women leaders globally.  We have now invested close to £500k in 49 women who were currently in senior leadership and or governance roles and identified as having the potential to make a big impact in rugby.  Many of these have gone on to take up positions of CEOs, Presidents at Board Directors at a Union, Regional Association and World Rugby Level.   We also produced a resource called Balancing the Board which we use with targeted unions to assist them to improve their commitment to diversity.  And we are seeing changes, sometimes it’s simply about pointing out the obvious that value comes from diversity of thought.

One area that I feel really passionate about is the work we are doing is coaching.  We completed a review of the status of women in coach leadership positions which showed that back in 2017 at the Rugby World Cup in Ireland there was only one union (out of 12) that had a woman in a head coach position and there were less than four women coaches involved in wider coaching teams.  Since then we have adopted a holistic set of recommendations aimed at driving diversity in coaching with the premise that the business case for diversity is just as important on the field as it is in the board room. 

We now are working with over 100 elite level coaches on a long-term change programme and have put in place a series of interventions working with unions to change the look and feel of coaching.  One such an initiative has been the introduction of a Coaching Internship Programme for the RWC which will now take place in New Zealand in 2022.  In this case we provided the qualified unions with an additional coaching accreditation on the basis that this must be filled by a woman high-performance coach who is included in the world cup campaign for a 12 month lead period in the lead up to the NZ Event.

Can you talk through the work that you’re doing with girls in countries such as Iran, Syria, Malaysia and Laos?

We have seen impressive growth in the game globally but in particular huge women’s participation growth in Asia and Africa.  One of the programmes we launched two years ago was a global integrated marketing campaign called Try and Stop Us.  You can find out more about the campaign by going to www.women.rugby. The three-year campaign started with World Rugby working with the Regional Associations to identify a team of inspirational women in rugby who despite some of the challenges that exist for them to play sport embraced the sport of rugby and have been called the Unstoppables. 

Two of the original Unstoppables were from Iran and Malaysia.  The before and after participation growth following the original campaign were phenomenal with women’s rugby in iran growing from approximately 3,300 to over 10,000 and the number of women in Malaysia growing from approximately 14,300 to 18,000. The campaign has now morphed into World Rugby providing generic resources to enable unions such as Syria and Lao, for example, to identify their own Unstoppables to lift the profile of women in rugby in their countries with the aim of increasing participation and growing awareness of the women’s game.  Of note is the fact we have executive leadership scholars from Lao, Syria and Iran all leading the way to grow women’s rugby.

Why do you believe it is so important to use sport to grow pathways and opportunities for women, and how do you scale this up on a global level?

Participation in sport and physical activity develops psychological and physical wellbeing.  All girls and women should be given the same opportunities as their male counterparts to realise the benefit of participating and achieving in physical activity.  Involvement in sport is character building, it builds a sense of community connection, social support and diverse friendships whilst at the same time creates opportunities for leadership development. I have seen first-hand the power of sport to change people’s lives. 

There are so many amazing stories about women who through their involvement in rugby have had life changing situations. Whether it is though programmes that enable young girls to stay, as long as possible, as young girls rather than being teenage brides or it’s where actual participation in a sport defies the stereotypes and cultures in many countries that hold women back from reaching their potential in society. Whilst there is still a long way to go, sport does create a platform for change for women in many countries where life for them is just not fair.

Rugby and its values has the ability to empower woman and girls, both on and off the field. There is something special in the “sisterhood” of this game which goes wider than clubs, regional and national representation. The connection globally of women in rugby I have found incredibly unique and enduring. My role is to work with unions and regions to remove barriers and foster opportunities for young girls to get involved and to support the competitive pathways at the highest level to create inspirational on field performances that capture male and female fan engagement and entice new commercial partners to underpin our strategy. 

How has Covid-19 affected your work, including most recently the postponement of the Women’s Rugby World Cup?

I join with the rest of the rugby family to express my sincere sympathy for the disappointed players, coaches and teams feel due to the postponement.  This was an incredibly difficult decision to make but it was the right decision for many reasons.  This postponement has enabled us to now develop a more comprehensive support package for teams.  We announced a minimum of £2m increased investment to target into the preparation of the teams.   I know that next year will be phenomenal and it will be great to be able to showcase New Zealand to the wider rugby family, friends and fans that would not have been able to attend the event in New Zealand this year.  Covid-19 has affected everyone globally to some extent, however what I can say is that at a global level World Rugby has been 100% committed to increase its support for women in rugby during this time.  There has been no cuts to any budget area linked to growing the women’s game and given the growth of women in rugby is a key strategic priority there has been increases in areas such as coaching, competitions, profile and leadership.  Whilst the return to play has been challenging in many countries what has been exciting is the focus on lifting the profile of women in rugby both at a leadership level and the rise of the global “Unstoppables”.   With the announcement this month of a new global calendar and the launch of a new 16 team three tiered annual competition called WXV the landscape for the future is incredibly positive.  During this period we have taken the opportunity to work with unions to think big about how to take the women’s game to the next level.

What are you hopeful for in 2021?

I have been incredibly fortunate this year to be back in New Zealand for an extended period for work which has enabled me to spend quality time with family and friends. But with working Dublin hours on zoom calls till early hours in the morning most nights it’s time to journey back to Ireland.  This year from a work perspective despite the RWC 2021 postponement is looking like a huge year.  We are at the halfway mark of the eight year plan and it’s time to take stock and look at what have been the big wins, what impact have they had and where do we need to focus more investment and resources going forward.  We are on a journey to normalise women’s involvement in rugby on and off the field and we are making inroads but have still much to do. On a personal perspective, I’m looking forward to vaccinations rolling out, borders opening and life for many returning to some sort of normal state where people can embrace their family and friends and meet for a coffee or glass of wine in a pub.  For a rest of the world to experience living like it is in New Zealand again.

CONTRIBUTOR

Katie Sadleir

General Manager, Women’s Rugby

World Rugby

Kea member

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Filed Under: Global Kiwi, World changing Kiwi Tagged With: Diversity, Rugby, Sport, World Rugby

The UK has the second largest B Corp Community in the world, with over 430 B Corps (and counting) representing 48 industries and over 22,000 employees, with combined revenue of £4.3 billion. Additionally, Europe currently has over 600 registered B Corp members. 

The B Corp movement is gaining traction in New Zealand as well, and is an exciting opportunity for Kiwi businesses and exports to strengthen their global footprint amongst this dedicated community. 

Joining the B Corp movement also has proven business benefits, with employees of B Corp businesses 46 percent more likely to report being satisfied and engaged. Furthermore, the B Corp movement is reflective of public sentiment in the UK, with 72 percent of the public believing that businesses should have a legal responsibility to the planet and people, alongside maximising profits. 

There is a huge opportunity for New Zealand businesses to tap into the UK market through B Corp certification. Assessment is free, all you need to do is pay an annual certification fee and re-certify every three years. As an increasing number of companies look to balance people, profit and the planet, a B Corp certification is a huge opportunity for Kiwi businesses to gain exposure in export markets as this business practice grows in traction across the world.

CONTRIBUTOR

Ciara Liu

Regional Director, China

Kea New Zealand

Kea member

Filed Under: Businesses going global, Global Kiwi, World changing Kiwi Tagged With: Business Growth, Europe, Insights, Regional, Sara Fogarty, UK

The island’s (Hainan) offshore duty-free sales are likely to exceed 60 billion yuan ($9.15 billion NZD) in 2021, up from 30 billion yuan last year. The categories of duty-free goods have also been expanded from 38 to 45. This is a good chance for high priced New Zealand products to access the China market and seize the momentum.

As part of the Hainan project in Lingshui, one of the key zones in Hainan’s Free Trade Port, workers have been in a race against time to prepare a education campus as part of a pilot area for a new model of international education. So far 16 prestigious universities from China and overseas, including Coventry University from the United Kingdom and the University of Alberta in Canada, have decided to host education programs at the campus. 

The Hainan FTP is pushing itself to become one of the world’s top places for international education. New Zealand’s education providers will benefit from exploring this opportunity. Even private institutions such as outdoor sport academies (eg. golf and surfing) could be in great demand in the future.

CONTRIBUTOR

Ciara Liu

Regional Director, China

Kea New Zealand

Kea member



HOW KEA CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS GROW

Kea Connect

Kea Connect is a free service that will help your business grow offshore. We connect you personally with regional, sector-specific experts and peers.

READ MORE

Resources

Kea is here to help New Zealand businesses grow offshore. Be inspired and hear advice from businesses who have created their export path.

READ MORE

Jobs Portal

Looking for the right talent for your team? Reach our global Kiwi community through the Kea international job portal. 

READ MORE

Filed Under: Businesses going global, Global Kiwi, World changing Kiwi Tagged With: Business Growth, China, Ciara Liu, Insights, Regional

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