Executive Director's Report:
I would like to begin by thanking the extremely dedicated team at Asia:NZ who have
achieved what I believe are excellent results for the year, as well as the Asia:NZ board,
members of parliament, our core sponsors and external partners for their continued
support and commitment.
The past financial year, 2007/08, has been a busy and successful one for the Foundation. Through our wide network of partners and friends we have delivered a
broad range of programmes and our activities have touched thousands.
If we measure things such as participation in cultural events, the interest in our
education programmes, requests for funding for our grants and the number of pages
visited on our website, it is clear the Foundation’s activities are attracting more and
more attention as New Zealanders’ attitudes and behaviour towards the region are
definitely changing.
But there is still a great deal of work to be done. New Zealand doesn’t look naturally
towards Asia and mainstream New Zealand doesn’t identify easily with Asian cultures
and languages. In fact, the public still has some way to go before we readily accept the
Asian component that is part of New Zealand’s national identity, dating back to the days
of the Otago gold rush in the 1860s.