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authot: Tim Fulton 8 months ago
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[size=1.1em]A Chinese company is flying liquid milk from New Zealand farms to Shanghai, but the company’s attempts to polish its credentials may have tangled Prime Minister John Key in a potential breach of Cabinet rules.
The food importer Oravida last year published a picture of Key on the golf course with the company’s chairman.
Key is described more than once as the Prime Minister in a picture the company posted on its website.
[size=1.1em]He is pictured smiling shoulder to shoulder next to the chairman, Deyi Shi, bolstered by a caption giving every indication he supports Oravida’s business.
The Cabinet manual, a guide for ministerial behaviour, says no minister should endorse any product in any media.
It warns ministers when accepting invitations to tell the organisation it may not use photos taken of the minister at the event or to publicise the event.
Oravida's PR material says: “On Friday 26th October Mr Deyi Shi, the founder and principal of the Oravida Group Companies, and extremely competent golfer, had the honour of playing golf with New Zealand’s current Prime Minister The Right Honourable John Key. Prime Minister Key, a keen and competent golfer, entered into the light hearted spirit of the head to head competition with Mr Shi at this fun event”.
It turns out that in principle Key backs the business, telling NZ Farmer's Weekly that taking fresh milk to Shanghai is a normal business proposition, so on behalf of the country “all power to them”.
However, Oravida’s attempt to use the golfing photo for a commercial edge is all the more embarrassing because a director of its New Zealand arm, Oravida Wine NZ Ltd, is David Wong-Tung; a food import-export merchant and husband of the 5th ranked cabinet minister Judith Collins.
A member of Key’s staff with him in China acknowledged a picture like this one appeared to breach Cabinet rules governing ministers endorsing commercial enterprises.
There is nothing to suggest Key knew about Oravida’s use of the picture or that ministerial connections have played a part in the company’s development.
It wasn’t clear late last night whether Key had seen Oravida’s website picture.
His office was made aware of both that and David Wong-Tung directorship shortly before he flew to Shanghai for his latest round of engagements in China.
But business operators have long seen value in getting government ministers to polish their credentials, just as they’ve enjoyed these past few days being with the trade and cultural delegation to China headlined by Key.
Key said this week it was important for him to attend a signing event for China Southern Airways “just to continue to discuss the relationship, and it’s the right symbolic gesture to be doing that”.
It was evident that the Chinese also valued having the Prime Minister on hand when the company first began its New Zealand flights.
“You can see the importance they placed on me coming up and welcoming the first aircraft into New Zealand,” he said following a signing ceremony reinforcing the link.
The picture of Key golfing still features in the news and events section of Oravida's website as it starts its Shanghai milk venture.
Key’s brush with the company could also bring his position on Chinese investment in New Zealand dairying under scrutiny.
This week at a meeting during the Bo’ao Forum in southern China he told China's new president that New Zealanders were concerned about losing farmland to foreign buyers, and that they would prefer the Chinese to instead invest in facilities like Yashili's proposed dairy processing plant in Pokeno, near Auckland, or Bright Food's Synlait export milk business in Canterbury.
The pending Shanghai milk run brings into question how Key would reconcile his interest in safeguarding Kiwi farm ownership with a foreign entrepreneur carting fresh milk and other ready-made dairy liquid items across the sea. For unlike processed milk powder and other export commodities, Oravida is out to exploit Chinese demand for New Zealand milk with little benefit left behind for New Zealanders.
On Monday while in Guandog province, Key elaborated on what he knows about Oravida’s plan for Shanghai.
“The limited information I have is that they either have or are intending to sell fresh milk into the Shanghai market,” he said.
“I mean the New Zealand Government’s perspective is, look, it’s just another business and if they want to do that, and they can make money out of that given it’s an expensive product to get over, then all power to them.”
Key didn’t see this put him at odds with the harder position on foreign land purchases.
“From what I understand it’s a very expensive product because of the air freight, and the reality is that there will be a domestic market for some fresh milk sourced from New Zealand. Australia sends quite a lot of fresh milk to other parts of the world, but it’s quite a limited market because of the sheer cost of it.”
Fonterra chairman John Wilson was not critical of Oravida’s approach, saying it showed the premium available for New Zealand dairy products was high enough to justify moving milk by air.
Fonterra’s recently announced plan to develop a UHT milk facility at Waitoa in the Waikato told a similar economic story. Three years ago the idea of targeting UHT there would have been considered uneconomic, Wilson said.
As part of his third official visit to China, Key is marking five years of the China-NZ Free Trade Agreement and 40 years of official diplomatic relations.
Q11 发表于 2013-11-29 16:48
http://www.guantao.com/china/guankan_C.asp?id=3716
Q11 发表于 2013-11-29 16:47
https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCgQFjAA&url=http%3A% ...
LSDWSZ 发表于 2013-11-29 21:15
点不开呀，着急ing
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