Far North Mayor, councillor head to China to talk business

Far North Mayor John Carter (pictured) and councillor Sally Macauley are heading to China next month to talk business. Photo / File

Far North Mayor John Carter and councillor Sally Macauley will travel to China next month for a series of meetings with potential investors in the Far North.

The October 9-17 trip, expected to cost about $15,000, was approved at Thursday's council meeting in Kerikeri.

They will be joined by Andy Nock, the chief executive of council-owned company Far North Holdings.

The trio will meet representatives of TUS-Holdings, the business arm of Beijing's Tsinghua University, and spend two days with Shanghai Cred, a real estate firm planning an $800 million tourism development at Carrington Estate on Karikari Peninsula. If it goes ahead as planned it would be New Zealand's single biggest tourism industry investment.

Shanghai Cred bought the land in 2013 and had been expected to apply for resource consent application in late 2016, but the application has yet to be lodged.

Other meetings are planned with China Oil, Tongxin Group, Enhao Waste Group, a honey firm, the mayor of Nanchang and the governors of Liaoning province, which has a sister-city relationship with the Far North.

Carter told the meeting the trip was necessary to encourage investment and ensure the relationship with China continued to grow.

It was important for the Far North that Shanghai Cred's project went ahead because it could lead to significant upgrade of Kaitaia airport and possibly also a thermal pool complex at Ngāwhā, the former Ginn's Spa, which closed down in 2015.

Councillor Mate Radich, however, was concerned the public had no idea what they had gained from last year's trip to China by Deputy Mayor Tania McInnes and councillor John Vujcich, yet now they were being asked to fund another.

Vujcich said three Memorandums of Understanding signed by Far North Holdings and Chinese businesses were already benefiting the Far North.

McInnes said by building relationships with China the council was able to influence the kind of investments that were made in the Far North, ''so the things that happen in our backyard are things we want to happen, they don't just happen to us''.

The bulk of the trip's $15,000 cost will be flights and accommodation because the hosts are expected to cover most other expenses.

In March 2017 the council signed a Memorandum of Intent with TUS-Holdings. The agreement made no specific commitments but the company said it was keen to invest in tourism and geothermal energy, and to establish a venture capital fund for projects in tourism, technology, film and the environment.

McInnes and Vujcich travelled to China to meet TUS-Holdings representatives in November last year. That trip cost $10,136.