John Key is set to be catapulted on to the global stage at next week's Apec leaders meeting in Lima, Peru.

In his first international gig as New Zealand's Prime Minister, Key is scheduled to deliver the opening remarks at a major session on the global financial crisis at the adjoining chief executives summit.

Key's attendance is dependent on getting his Government negotiations in place first, and Cabinet announced. But it is a golden opportunity.

His name isn't on the Apec CEO Summit programme. The programme simply states the opening remarks are to be made by H. E. Prime Minister of New Zealand. This indicates the berth would have been filled by his highly accomplished predecessor, Labour's Helen Clark, if she had won Saturday's election.

Clark has a huge track record in Apec leading moves to put climate change on the agenda at the Busan (2005) leaders' meeting and having played a strong role on trade issues over her eight meetings as Prime Minister.

She used her bilateral meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Bangkok and Santiago meetings to pave the way for the opening of negotiations on the free trade deal that was ultimately signed last April in Beijing.

Key has no track record in foreign affairs. But his background as a finance sector high-flyer will enable him to play to his own strengths as he sets the scene for an open forum to address issues ranging from the implication of the current financial turmoil, through to where the global economy is heading and what the economic outlook will be for 2009.

If he is smart he will use his address to underpin a number of areas where New Zealand is well qualified to exert leadership: The global trade agenda where this country is pushing ahead with major regional deals is the most significant. But there is also an opportunity to stress the importance to small Apec nations like our own that the big elephants (US and China) don't trample over others as they seek to ballast their own economies.

As the first international leader to follow Peruvian President Alan Garcia on to the stage, Key has an opportunity to help create a favourable agenda ahead of the later leaders' meeting.

A high-level panel will pick up on Key's themes. Among them: Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo, the peripatetic US economist David Hale, Luis Moreno who heads the Inter-America Bank and Emilson Alonso who is managing director of HSBC (Latin America).

Yeo and Hale, in particular, are influential in regional business forums and are likely to mark him up well if he makes a good impression.