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Vladivostok has got a lot going for it. But out in the ‘Gulag’ – the concrete monstrosity that the Russians have plonked on Russky Island – it wasn’t so hot. It wasn’t the shoddy building standards (lifts stopping mid-floor; toilet doors too large for their frames) but the E-coli bug that did in several NZ delegates there for the prestigious APEC CEOs …

Former Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard beat a swift retreat from the recent Russian APEC. Bollard clearly wasn’t used to being tracked by big ominous looking Russians and did not hang about after being announced as APEC’s new executive director.The APEC role is the ultimate when it comes to “herding cats” – aka the many officials from around the region who …

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully left has left the ‘Big Apple’ to visit Jamaica and Cuba for bilateral talks. McCully displayed considerable prowess at the United Nations where he delivered a cut-through address slamming the Security Council’s failure to deals with the mounting deaths in Syria. He wants the P5 – the club of five permanent council members; the US, Russia, …

  By Jo Doolan As China continues to lead the world in renewable energy, indices prepared by global accounting firm Ernst & Young show there are future growth opportunities for New Zealand companies in this sector, along with tax incentives in China and tax exemptions in New Zealand. Many assume China is focused on growth at any cost and is …

London businessman Tim McCready reports on Vladivostok and Russky Island venue for the 2012 Apec Leaders’ Meeting and CEOs Summit.

By Joanna Doolan The game is changing for foreign multinationals operating in China, with both warnings and opportunities tipped by Ernst & Young in its latest reports on Chinese productivity and growth. For the past decade foreign companies have done well in China, on the back of world-beating productivity gains, an expanding labour force, rising inflows of investment government policies …

By Brian Lynch A one-day symposium was held in Wellington on 5 September 2012 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and New Zealand. It was a substantial event , co-hosted on the New Zealand side by the Contemporary China Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington(VUW) and by the New Zealand Institute of …

Why doesn’t Tower Investment’s Sam Stubbs round up a few institutional investors in Fisher & Paykel Appliances and go pay a call on Haier at its China HQ and say they want to stay in with the company for the long haul? How hard would it be for the mercurial Stubbs to muster a coalition of the usual suspects and …

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce says that while the closure of one paper machine at the Kawerau mill was a consequence of the fact that newsprint making was a “declining industry”. Speaking this weekend on TV3’s “The Nation” he rejected claims from the mill owners, Norske Skog, that the high New Zealand dollar was a factor in the closure. Asked …

Blowing in the wind … John Key grapples with the problems of ownership. Photo / Mark Mitchell Mr Speaker, I rise today in this House to introduce legislation to vest all natural resources – water, geothermal steam, airwaves, aquifers and, for the avoidance of doubt, all minerals, ironsands, magma, rare earth deposits, coal, lignite, methane and uranium in this country …