A new report sets out the case for a close look at one region’s future with Asia, and highlights the surprising amount of involvement the Bay of Plenty already has with the world’s most populous region.

The report Asia and the Bay of Plenty is to be released to support the Bay of Plenty Asia Aware Principals’ Forum in Tauranga on May 22.

It is the second of a series of forums around the country giving school principals the opportunity to discuss how they can prepare their students for a future in which Asia is highly influential.

Key findings from the report include:

• While Australia is our biggest single export market, Asia is New Zealand’s most important export region with $12.5 billion worth of goods sent to Asian countries annually.

• The Port of Tauranga is New Zealand’s biggest port exporting goods to Asia, counting for about $8.1 billion of exports in 2006.

• Port of Tauranga’s main exports by dollar value were dairy products, meat and meat products, logs and wood articles, aluminium, machinery, fruit, seafood, and beverages.

• Six of Port of Tauranga’s top ten most important export destinations are in Asia. They are China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand.

• Nearly 800,000 international tourists visited the Rotorua area and about 265,000 visited the Bay of Plenty area. China is the fourth biggest source of tourists to New Zealand, accounting for 9 percent of travellers. But by 2013, Chinese tourists are expected to nearly double to 17 percent, making it New Zealand’s third biggest market.

• Over 90,000 international students studied at New Zealand schools and tertiary institutions in 2006. Of those, 30,000 were from China, 15,000 were from South Korea and 14,000 from Japan. Many Bay of Plenty schools depend on and host students from countries in Asia.

• Nearly 8,000 people in the Bay of Plenty identified as Asian in the 2006 census - including people of Indian, Chinese, Filipino, South Korean, Japanese, Sri Lankan, Thai, Bangladeshi, Indonesian, Cambodian and Vietnamese descent.
  

Twenty years ago, Japan was the only Asian country ranked among the world’s top economies. Now three of the world’s top four economies are in Asia: China, Japan and India.  Students today need knowledge and skills to thrive in a global world increasingly led by Asia. With the New Zealand Curriculum calling for a focus on future issues and themes such as globalisation, it is vital that students have cross-curricula and extra-curricula opportunities to learn about Asia.

Some Bay of Plenty schools and tertiary institutions have reciprocal student exchanges with Japanese and Chinese counterparts. Many students from Asian countries come to study at Bay of Plenty schools.

As New Zealand’s Asian population grows, children growing up today are likely to live, study and work alongside people of Asian ethnicity and Asia is already a large part of New Zealand daily life.  A child going to school in the Bay of Plenty might now wear clothes made in China, read books printed in Hong Kong, travel in a Japanese car and use a computer made in Taiwan

The Asia New Zealand Foundation is leading an initiative called the Asia Aware Principals Forum to different regional centres, including Tauranga on May 22.

It is doing this because school principals are key players in increasing Asia knowledge in communities around New Zealand. The event in Tauranga follows a similar event in New Plymouth last month. Both events are aimed at school principals.