OPENING OF WORLD TRADE CENTRE NETWORK

Mr Barnett, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen

I'm delighted to be with you this evening for the opening of the World Trade Centre network here in Auckland.

Trade is the lifeblood of New Zealand's economy.

Exports of goods and services comprise just on 30 percent of New Zealand's Gross Domestic Product.

Think about that.

Close on 30 cents in every dollar of what we produce in New Zealand finds its way into exports.

Auckland is no exception. Almost half of the 8500 corporate members of the Auckland Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry are firms involved in international trade.

The health and growth of your businesses - and your success in trade - is vital to New Zealand's economy.

Growth and trade go hand in hand.

On both counts, we have some impressive runs on the board.

In the five years since March 1991 the economy has grown, in real terms, by some 25 percent.

Export earnings over the five years to June 1996 have increased 33 percent with significant growth on non-commodity manufactures.

Over the same time period, unemployment has fallen from 10.3 percent in December 1991, to 6.1 percent in June 1996.

The total number of people in employment has increased by more than 230,000 - 16 percent - with three quarters of this increase being in full time employment.

These are not just dry statistics.

Each job means another family standing tall and off welfare.

It means another family contributing to New Zealand as a society and a nation.

New Zealand's success in world trade is no accident.

Our success results from having the right mix of policies and a sensible understanding between government and the private sector.

Together, within a single generation, we have broken out of New Zealand's historical reliance on commodity exports to Europe.

Seventy percent of our trade - and inward investment is now based in the dynamic Asia-Pacific Basin.

Despite that we face the absurd situation of having political parties campaigning against investment and people from that region.

Our relationship with Australia is still our most important relationship for trade.

Two-way trade now totals $10 billion.

In the last 12 months alone, we have made major advances in this key trade relationship.

The Government has locked in, as never before, a genuine single and open market for New Zealand's goods and services into Australia.

Mutual recognition of professional standards and qualifications, joint trans-tasman food standards, and improved arrangements for inspection of imported goods have all been achieved in the last year.

So too have we moved to achieve a single aviation market with Australia, not to mention the prospect that Australians will shortly be enriched by seeing Shortland Street and other New Zealand cultural icons on their television screens!

Over the last six years it has been the constant endeavour of my Government to improve and improve again access for New Zealand's products to the markets of the world.

We are working, patiently and steadily, towards improved bilateral trade arrangements with the European Union and Latin America.

We are doing the same in APEC - the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation dialogue.

The APEC goal of free and open trade access by 2010 to the developed economies, and 2020 for developing economies holds exciting prospects for New Zealand.

The upcoming meeting of World Trade Organisation Ministers in Singapore in December, preceded by a Summit of APEC leaders in November, will set the stage of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations commencing in the year 2000.

With the support of the country's voters I will attend the APEC leaders' fourth meeting in November.

Over the next five weeks of political campaigning you will hear endlessly, from the pessimists leading the other political parties, how bad New Zealand is performing.

Mine is a different message - we have never been as well positioned to succeed, so while we are doing well now, the best is yet to come.

Recall the starting position I inherited in 1990 and compare that with today.

For four successive years to 1995, the World Competitiveness Report rated New Zealand as the top OECD country for government polices and for long term competitiveness of domestic economic policies.

This year's Global Competitiveness Report, from the World Economic Forum, ranked us as the third most competitive economy in the entire world - after Singapore and Hong Kong.

In short, we can foot it with the world's best performing economies; and come out on top.

Trade and investment is measurably enhanced by good information.

In today's technological age, New Zealand's geographic isolation is no longer the handicap it was.

Modern communications, the Internet and modern aviation, have brought people and business closer together than at any time in our history.

In the process, we have opened an information floodgate.

The important mixes with the irrelevant.

In the process, the risk is that the crucial intelligence that business and government need to operate can be lost in an avalanche of detail.

That's why I warmly congratulate the Chamber of Commerce for taking the initiative to have a World Trade Centre network here in Auckland.

The availability it will bring of concise reports on business climate, bulletin boards for buying and selling, credit reporting facilities and corporate information stand to be vital ingredients for further business success.

I am therefore delighted to see the strong corporate support for this venture, not only from the combined Chambers of Commerce, but also the Auckland Savings Bank and Tradenz.

I wish you well as you embark on this new initiative to foster excellence and success in New Zealand's trade with the international community.

I am happy to help the Chamber launch this new service to business.

It's an example of forward thinking that I commend.

Earlier today I launched the National Party's campaign slogan - or perhaps more correctly our message.

It is 'First Tick National'.

Very straight forward, very clear advice.

The thinking behind it was quite direct.

The first vote on the ballot paper is the party vote.

If you believe like me that the best is yet to come and you want the next three years to successfully build on the last six years, then when you go into the ballot box on October 12th remember my clear message:

'First Tick National'.