newzealandinc.com Informed. Influential. Indispensable.
Mainzeal director Richard Yan has stepped down from the New Zealand China Council’s executive board of his own volition.
newzealandinc.com believes Yan – who has been a passionate advocate for a strong relationship between New Zealand and China – would not have wanted to cause any issues for the recently formed council.
Yan earlier appeared on the council’s executive board as chief executive of New Zealand China House Limited.
newzealandinc.com earlier reported Yan appeared to have scuppered plans for a full-scale “New Zealand House” in Shanghai to host NZ’s key government agencies and companies and to showcase NZ products.
During newzealandinc.com’s recent research trip to China, informed sources said that Yan had indicated he intended to seek commercial tenants for his Shanghai building after
protracted negotiations with NZ Government agencies failed to reach a swift conclusion.
Yan has yet to comment publicly
in the wake of the announcement that Mainzeal Property and Construction Limited had been placed in receivership. But it appears that there were reservations in some parts of Government over the Shanghai building’s location and the lack of consultation in the early stages. That said it is still possible that New Zealand House will proceed in a less flamboyant fashion that Yan originally planned.
Yan talked publicly last year – including at the Parliamentary Symposium to celebrate 40 years of official relations between New Zealand and the People’s republic of China – of his dream for the project and hope that John Key would open it during a proposed November trip to Shanghai. The delayed leadership transition in China saw Key’s trip postponed until this year.