25 September 2024

The Latin America New Zealand Business Council (LANZBC) in collaboration with Auckland University of Technology and the Latin America CAPE hosted an event on 23 September 2024 to commemorate 60 years of bilateral relations between New Zealand and Brazil.

The event was attended by approximately 60 people from the business and diplomatic community, including the Ambassador for Peru to New Zealand, H.E. José Bustinza Soto. Speakers at the event included the Minister for Trade, Hon Todd McClay, the Mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown, and a business panel comprising representatives of Tait Communications, Gallagher Animal Management, Seequent and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE).

The Ambassador for Brazil to New Zealand, H.E. Marcos Arbizu de Souza Campos and the New Zealand Ambassador to Brazil H.E. Richard Prendergast also gave video presentations.

The Minister for Trade and the respective Ambassadors noted the closeness of the relationship between New Zealand and Brazil and how much our governments collaborate in international settings with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and at the United Nations on global issues such as agriculture, trade liberalisation, nuclear disarmament, human rights, climate change, gender equality and indigenous issues. For example, Brazil is a fellow member country of the Global Trade and Gender Arrangement (GTAGA), joining in early 2024, with Minister McClay being the current chair for GTAGA.

Minister McClay noted that the government wants New Zealand to double exports by value over the next 10 years and the importance of Latin America and Brazil as part of this goal given the significant business opportunities in the region for NZ businesses.

New Zealand has been invited as a special guest country by Brazil to the 19th Heads of State and Government Summit of the Group of 20 (G20) in November 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Minister emphasised this as a great chance to engage with the world’s 19 largest economies.

Business panel speakers underlined the size of the opportunity for New Zealand businesses in Brazil as one of world’s biggest economies and democracies with 215 million people and 20 million people in São Paulo alone. Key points from the panel included the importance of building strong relationships and getting to know people before getting down to businesses, having a physical presence in market, the employment of bilingual staff in Brazil who have an international mindset, making a careful choice of distributors and using NZTE support to go into the market ‘with eyes wide open’. In addition, it was stressed that New Zealand businesses shouldn’t underestimate the power of language and culture, the importance of hiring appropriate people to ‘tropicalise ideas and solutions’ and to adopt new business models appropriate for the market.

There was strong support at the event for LANZBC and leading businesses to lobby international airlines to create a direct airlink between Auckland and São Paulo – as being key to unlocking new business opportunities, including tourism and people to people links.

Our Director, Dr Matthew O’Meagher closed the event by highlighting some of the Latin America CAPE’s projects over the last 6 years that have lead to an increased number of links between created and strengthened between New Zealand and Brazil.

The Minister for Trade will be leading a trade delegation to Brazil in late October 2024 with the participation of a LANZBC representative and leading NZ businesses.