Joyce bullish on new China deals

Economic Development minister Steven Joyce is urging people not to get too hung up over Govt's veto of the Lochinver sale. Photo / Ben Fraser

Steven Joyce doesn't want the Lochinver decision to cast a shadow over New Zealand's relationship with China.

"There are significant Chinese investors wanting to make investments in New Zealand and with some quite exciting projects that they don't want to talk about yet which would add significant jobs and growth for New Zealand," says the Economic Development Minister.

"It would be too easy to get too hung up on this one."

Joyce said the challenge was to keep building relationships with Chinese companies and investors to harvest the "next stage of benefits from the free trade agreement and the wider relationship with China".

Joyce travelled to Guangzhou and Beijing last week to catch up and open doors for New Zealand companies in China, meet with Vice-Premier Wang Yang and take part in the second China New Zealand Partnership Forum.

He was bullish about prospects: "New Zealand has some great opportunities here. The media has been a little bit on about the downturn in China but the fundamentals are very strong.

"It's all moving towards consumer activity and growth in services."

He highlighted tourism as a big potential winner for New Zealand with the growth in the travelling Chinese population.

The food sector was also a standout. "Potentially what is happening in dairy at the moment is masking the wider story - although of course dairy is the biggest thing for us. But actually all the other food sectors are in a very positive frame of mind. The issues with dairy are reasonably unique on the supply side and the demand side and they will play out over the next year.