What an exciting time it is for showcasing NewZealand innovation and competitiveness. Team New Zealand has done us proud. I'll be calling into San Francisco for meetings on my way back from participating on a panel at the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils in Panama City in a couple of weeks.

We will be sharing lessons learned, best pracice anecdotes and discussing how our innovation, education and infrastructure policies impact New Zealand's competitiveness. I look forward to updating you on this trip in the next Exporter e-news.

Catherine Beard
027 463 3212 or cbeard@exportnz.org.nz

Activity around TPP is getting frenetic in the run up to the meeting of TPP leaders in the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bali in early October. In preparation for this, lead negotiators are assembling in Washington DC, and while there is still some skepticism out there a number of them believe that TPP might be completed by the end of the year.

On other matters, our agreement with Taiwan will soon pass into New Zealand law. Events are being held around New Zealand next week to highlight the opportunities created by this agreement.  ExportNZ members would be most welcome to attend the event nearest to them. More...

C Beard

An excellent response from New Zealand businesses has resulted in more than 180 products being nominated for Buy NZ Made’s first ever “People’s Choice Awards”.

The Buy NZ Made campaign, featuring the iconic kiwi in a triangle logo, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Public voting is underway to decide the winners in each of the five Awards categories - which includes "Best NZ Made Product on the World Stage (Export)".

When you vote, you can enter into a prize draw to win a NZ Made prize pack, two tickets to the Awards evening and a night’s accommodation at SkyCity Auckland. Voting closes 18 October. More...

In this Herald article, Helen Twose looks at how niche products and services are contributing to New Zealand's exports, and how these companies are overcoming a volatile currency.

BNZ's head of research, Stephen Toplis, says "While nobody likes being in a position of facing a volatile currency, what we're seeing is that they are basically making efficiency gains within their businesses that mean that they can survive when the currency is poor for them and then do actually very well when the currency moves in their favour." More...

Global Value Chains offer major opportunity for growth and progress in advanced and developing economies, according to the latest OECD-WTO-UNCTAD report to G20.

The new report outlines how both the costs of trade and investment protectionism and the benefits of multilateral opening in agriculture, manufacturing and services are much higher in today’s highly interconnected world than previously thought. More...

The Singapore Business Federation (SBF) is Singapore's apex business chamber. It champions the interests of the business community in trade, investment and industrial relations. Nationally, SBF acts as the bridge between the government and businesses in Singapore to create a conducive business environment. Internationally, SBF represents the business community for the purpose of trade expansion and business networking. There is the opportunity to be listed on the SBF website in order to find investment or partners in Asia.

For more information, please visit www.sbf.org.sg or contact Samantha Mark who is the designated officer for the Oceania portfolio. Tel: +65 68276887 or Email: samantha.mark@sbf.org.sg.

C Beard

In what's believed to be a world-first, Pacific Aerospace has delivered a purpose-built geophysical survey aircraft directly from the production line. This is a significant development because the customer gets what they wants up front and doesn't have to deal with any third parties for approval of, or access to, modifications.  This delivers greater efficiency, saves customers time and money, and is winning Pacific Aerospace global contracts. Perth-based Geotech Airborne (a Geotech Company) will be operating P-750 XL187 world-wide on high resolution geophysical survey work. More...

Along with other international representatives of the Global Services Coalition, BusinessNZ has signed a letter to Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) Ministers around the world – including Washington DC, Belgium, Switzerland, Chile, Costa Rica, China, Canada, Peru, Norway, Iceland, Paraguay, Japan, Israel , Panama, Colombia, NZ, Japan, Korea, Turkey, Hong Kong, Mexico and Pakistan.

The goal is to create a TiSa that allows the liberalisation of trade and makes new modernized rules in services. More...

Richa Chugh, PhD Candidate at Victoria University's School of Marketing and International Business is researching how NZ exporter-distributor relationships develop and the impact of various marketing activities on such relationships and export outcomes.

The study would help NZ export managers to formulate relationship and marketing strategies and understand the role of formal and informal contracts.

If you are a NZ exporter with distributor relationships in foreign markets, you can help by completing the web-based survey here.

Please email Richa.Chugh@vuw.ac.nz for more information.

There are some great opportunities for improving your business through learnings at seminars, workshops and events.

To see what's coming up, go to the ExportNZ home page and scroll down to see what's happening around the country - from "All about India" to training about documents used in export.

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