Listen Now: 
September 20, 2024
Trade and security in Asia board picks
Adam Gifford
Posted On September 20, 2024
Download AudioForeign Affairs Winston Peters says New Zealand needs to step up its game in the way it deals with Asia, which is the country’s biggest trading regime.
He’s appointed three new members to the board of the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
Hone McGregor is a director of Nelson’s Wakatū Incorporation and its food and beverage subsidiary Kono, as well as chairing Te Taumata. which works with MFAT to identify Māori interests in relation to trade negotiations.
He replaces former Wakatū chair Paul Morgan on the board.
The other new members are John Boswell, who was the most senior officer in the New Zealand Army until he retired this year to become the chief executive at Marlborough District Council, and Professor David Capie, the director of Victoria University’s Centre for Strategic Studies, who has a research interest in conflict and security issues.
Mr Peters says the way to do better with out export industries is to put people on the ground who know what they’re doing.
“We cannot go on with the old view that we punch above our weight. That sort of claim in nonsense. We don’t punch above our weight. We punch way below it and that has been proven by countries like Ireland, dare I say Scandinavian countries, Iceland, Singapore who do far better on the international stage that we do, so we’ve got to up our game big time,” he says.
RELATED NEWS
