OSAKA PREFECTURE LUNCHEON

Rihga Royal Hotel, Osaka City

I am delighted to return to Osaka and greatly appreciate your generous words of welcome.

I first visited the Kansai region briefly in 1995. On that occasion I witnessed the rapid recovery that was underway in Kobe and Osaka Prefecture following the devastating Hanshin earthquake. We too are vulnerable to earthquakes and our scientists and engineers have been able to learn much from your experience.

On that earlier visit I was also struck by the scale of the Kansai region, your population, your economy and your infrastructure. In particular I was impressed by the Kansai International Airport, which was then less than a year old.

The airport opening was significant to New Zealand as it enabled direct flights between New Zealand and the Kansai region for the first time. This has brought many new opportunities for trade, tourism and investment. Despite differences of scale, language and culture, New Zealand and the Kansai region are truly complementary.

In recent years we have welcomed many groups and individuals from your region who have come to New Zealand to study our economic, administrative and social reforms. Over the last decade New Zealand has achieved a much stronger, more open and competitive economy.

I believe we have much to offer each other, in trade and investment, in tourism, in cultural and educational exchanges, in scientific links and through the exchange of ideas.

This is the basis for the steady growth in activity between the Kansai region and New Zealand. It was the reason that New Zealand reopened its Consulate-General in Osaka in 1994 and I want to thank you all for the support you give it.

Many Kansai people now come to New Zealand to share in the unique experience that is New Zealand. I'm sure they enjoy our differing culture, our scenery and the chance for a taste of adventure tourism.

For New Zealanders, Japan is no longer a strange and distant country. It is familiar. But it is still very different and therefore fascinating.

Here in the Kansai region you bring together the modern with the traditional, the city, the mountains, the countryside and the sea, in a combination that attracts many visitors to your region.

I understand that you are currently giving thought to how you can draw the different parts of the Kansai region together to make the region even stronger and more effective.

On a wider canvas, within the Asia Pacific region, Japan, New Zealand and many other countries are also bringing their different strengths and traditions together in free competition, partnership and cooperation. This is the context in which we hope to build even stronger ties with Osaka and the Kansai region in the years ahead.