The past 12 months have seen significant, exciting changes for the Foundation as we made strategic tweaks to some of our programmes. We also sought to improve engagement with our key audiences and shared more about the work we do through traditional and social media. These initiatives have enabled us to better deliver on our mission to equip New Zealanders to thrive in Asia.
The Foundation discussed how it can fully embrace New Zealand's bi-cultural identity at Taheke Marae in Rotorua earlier this year
As 2017 draws to a close, I’d like to highlight some of our work.
This year, we embarked on our Māori engagement initiative with the counsel of our Te Kahui Māori — our Leadership Network’s Māori caucus. Our staff, along with chair John Luxton, honorary adviser Traci Houpapa, and our Māori caucus, spent a day at Taheke Marae in Rotorua to talk about the Foundation’s whakapapa and how we will fully embrace New Zealand's bicultural identity. We see Māori playing an increasingly important role in New Zealand’s engagement with Asia and these discussions were an important first step on how the Foundation’s activities can reflect that.
Research and Track II
We launched four major pieces of research this year: Perceptions of Asia; Asian investment in New Zealand; Losing Momentum: School leavers’ Asia engagement; and Starting Strong: Nurturing the potential of our Asian under-fives.
There was considerable media coverage on these research reports (see stories on school leavers’ report and Asian under-fives). We’ve been delighted with the support we’ve had from key stakeholders around the report launches, which involved panel discussions and video storytelling. On-going conversations around the report findings are incredibly important, and we’re delighted those dialogues are continuing.
There has been a significant increase in our Track II engagement this year, both on and offshore. We hosted delegations from Taiwan, India and Vietnam, and were delighted to co-host visits by Elina Noor (Malaysia), Aries Arugay (Philippines) and Hideshi Tokuchi (Japan). We’ve had offshore dialogues in Japan, China and with ASEAN, and have participated in the Shangri-La Dialogue and Asia Pacific Roundtable. We’re also working hard to grow the ‘genepool’ of young academics working on Asia-related international relations and trade, with research grants and Track II simulations in Auckland and Otago.
Leadership
In the leadership space, we welcomed a new batch of Leadership Network members. We organised several LN events, such as a social enterprise hui, a refugee hui and an offshore Korea hui to further strengthen network members’ leadership skills and knowledge.
As part of our ASEAN Young Business Leaders Initiative (YBLI) programme, we brought eight leading social entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia to New Zealand to attend the Social Enterprise World Forum 2017 in Christchurch. We also took a group of New Zealand food and beverage entrepreneurs to Malaysia and Singapore, and brought a group from Southeast Asia to New Zealand. Both led to deals being signed and promising business relationships developed.
Following the General Election, we were thrilled two of our Leadership Network members have become members of Parliament – congratulations to Priyanca Radhakrishnan (Labour List MP) and Andrew Falloon (National MP for Rangitata).
Leadership Network members and visiting social entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia met in Christchurch in October for the Social Enterprise Hui
Education
We funded two overseas trips for educators during 2017 – the Indonesia Cultural Connections Trip and the Korean Studies Workshop. We supported more than 30 Experience Asia events in schools. There are now more than 750 schools in our Educators Network, and all can access Foundation-produced Asia resources they can use in their classrooms.
Our education team has continued to engage with key stakeholders in the education sector to build on the gains following the launches of our research on school leavers and Asian under-fives.
Arts and culture
This year we began our transition to our new role – from being a hands-on organiser to a co-founder and sponsor of the Auckland and Wellington Diwali Festivals, and the Auckland and Christchurch Lantern Festivals.
The Foundation transitioned from being a hands-on organiser to a co-founder and sponsor of the Auckland and Wellington Diwali festivals
A highlight was the Diwali photo/video competition we ran using Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. This campaign resulted in almost 1.8 million impressions across our social media platforms. Thanks to Air New Zealand for providing return flights to Singapore as a prize.
We selected curators for our Curators’ Programme and eight New Zealand artists for our artists-in-residence programme. We also celebrated the 10th anniversary of our Wellington Arts Residency Exchange (WARE) with Wellington City Council.
And we bade farewell to our director of culture, Jennifer King, who retired after 23 years with the Foundation. We recognise Jennifer’s contributions to the work of the Foundation. She has earned the moniker ‘the godmother of our festivals’ for her role in organising and promoting our Diwali and Lantern festivals. We wish Jennifer all the best in her retirement.
Communications and media
We strengthened our communications team to better engage our audiences. With a revitalised team, led by director of strategic communications and media Mark Russell, we have been able to raise the profile of the Foundation and heighten awareness of our programmes.
Early this year, I accepted an invitation from Fairfax to write a fortnightly column, which appears in Fairfax newspapers nationally and on Stuff online. This has given us an additional platform that contributes to informed discussion of Asia-related issues.
In September, we launched the Asia Media Centre to help increase the depth and breadth of reporting about Asia in New Zealand. We have received excellent initial feedback from journalists about the centre and we look forward to helping them access expertise on Asia-related issues. We supported 15 media projects this year, including media grants and internships to various Asian media organisations.
Business
This year we sent 24 business interns to various locations including Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, China, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. We also selected our first business interns to India and South Korea.
In collaboration with the University of Auckland Business School, we conducted workshops on distributor engagement and e-commerce in Auckland, Napier, Hamilton, Tauranga and Palmerston North.
We bid farewell to our business director James Penn and welcomed new director Felicity Roxburgh.
A good year
Finally, I think it’s fair to acknowledge not only what we have done, but also what we have become. One of my greatest satisfactions as executive director is seeing the Foundation become more unified across our various programmes. This has produced great results for us. And, because we have started doing things a bit differently and engaging more proactively with our key audiences, we have become a more prominent and recognised voice in the national conversation on New Zealand’s relations with Asia.
2017 was indeed a good year. I thank the board for their continuing support and the staff for all their hard work. However, there is more work to be done to deliver on our mission. The way we are going, I’m confident we are well-placed to deliver on this mandate. So bring on 2018!
Simon Draper