Report to COUNCIL for decision

Transcription

1 11/098 Subject: Visit to China January 2011 Prepared by: Meng Foon (District Mayor) Meeting Date: 24 February 2011 Report to COUNCIL for decision SUMMARY Firstly thank you for your support for me to visit Wenchang and Rizhao. This has been one of the most beneficial visits I have been on in support of our community and the future prospects it brings. James Zhang who used to work for GDC in the economic development department was returning to China for a while and accompanied me during my visit, he was most helpful as James is an excellent translator. Airfares cost $3,650; food, car travel, accommodation, laundry all hosted. There will be a slide show during lunch to accompany my report. RECOMMENDATIONS That the Council 1. receives the report 2. invites the Mayor of Rizhao and his delegation for a visit to Gisborne 3. receives the 15 year Rizhao City Gisborne Region commemorative agreement (Appendix 1) 4. adopts the Wenchang Intent agreement (Appendix 2) 5. invites the Mayor of Wenchang to sign the official document of the Friendly City Relationship 6. explores the merits of solar street lighting and reports back 7. receives and acknowledges the gifts from Wenchang City 8. receives and acknowledges the gift from Rizhao City 9. agrees that the Mayor continues to liaise between Tairawhiti producers and Wenchang and Rizhao businesses. Meng Foon, District Mayor DOCS_n183951_v1 Page 1 of 5

2 My visit didn t get off to a great start. Turning up well before time at Gisborne Airport, AirNZ informed me that that my flight was cancelled; my son and I drove to Auckland arriving safely at 1100pm to catch the flight to Hong Kong. Rent is about 30k rmb per month for a 4m x 10m premises in the CBD. The average electricity bill is around 80 rmb per month and household rice 5 rmb per kg. Wages average 1500 rmb per month. Wenchang Wenchang is about 1 hour s drive from Haikou airport on Hainan Island. We visited the city of Wenchang population 700K located on the eastern side of Hainan Island. The area is best known for the production and processing of coconuts (fresh coconut juice is superb) and is a fast developing tourist destination as it is mostly warm in Wenchang. Wenchang is developing at a fast rate, mainly to be a tourist city. There are hundreds of cranes overlooking the sky line. They have a number of beach shelters made from coconut leaves. The restaurant opening in Wenchang was very grand. We were hosted by the owners the Fu Brothers and Mr Xing. The ceremony was grand with many dignitaries participating. The Consul General of New Zealand was present Mr Pat English, Nick Nobilo, Tony Saljans owner of Saljans winery who bottles Gisborne red grapes, and other New Zealanders in support. The restaurant has a capacity of 2000 seats, 5 levels with an exclusive dining room on the top floor, private mahjong rooms, private massage rooms and a hair salon. The opening thundered with fireworks, a concert band and traditional lion dances. This organisation has about 80 restaurants and uses many tonnes of meat and seafood each year. The owners were interested in products from our region, mainly seafood, wine, honey, and meat, I will be following up on their request. Amazingly there are only two labels of wine in this grand restaurant - Vinoptima from Nobilo s and Cabernet from Saljans Wines whose grapes are Chris Parker s from Gisborne. The stands were as wide as our council chamber, what a coup! On behalf of GDC we presented a gift to the owners. All our gifts were designed by Nick Tupara. We signed a Friendly Intent agreement with the Mayor of Wenchang, Mayor Liu. The agreement will be ratified by the Chinese Government and later we will invite the Wenchang delegation to visit Gisborne to sign the official agreement appendix 2. I suggested that Mayor Liu and her delegation be invited to Gisborne and Mr Nick Nobilo is keen to host the signing event at his winery. We visited the National Space Centre of China in Wenchang which is in its early development stage. The rocket launch part will be 150m deep in the ground. DOCS_n183951_v1 Page 2 of 5

3 I visited the Olympic pool consisting of seven pools altogether seating 5K. All the furniture is themed to the sun and beach with a UFO style building for public amenities. I also visited the ocean and fishers institute educational facilities. Rizhao Rizhao s population is about 3.6M and expanding rapidly with many new buildings and community facilities and many cranes in the sky line since our last visit, I note that petrol 93 was RMB7.2 which is about $NZ1.50 per litre. Every road in China is a toll road. The cost I think is about $NZ2.00 per hour of driving. The roads are beautiful with large carriage ways, solid median strips for thousands of kms. There are no white line median strips like we have in New Zealand The city roads are similar with separate carriage ways for pedestrians, motor cyclists and cyclists, bus lanes and six lanes for motor vehicles all separated with a solid median strip. Rizhao and Gisborne City have been Sister Cities for 15 years. It was a great opportunity to visit Rizhao to celebrate the 15 year milestone. Our relationship has been beneficial to both cities during this time: Business trips from Rizhao School visits from Rizhao to Gisborne, Lytton High School, Gisborne Intermediate, Gisborne Girls High Students from Rizhao studying at the Tairawhiti Polytechnic Local wines being exported from Gisborne to Rizhao Longbush Logs exported to Rizhao Ernslawone Reciprocal Mayoral delegations. Rizhao was also awarded the United Nations Award for high environmental standards. I specially wanted to see how a 4m population managed their core assets mainly water, wastewater and solid waste. Water plant their water plant is modern and similar to our one in Waingake, they draw water from their large reservoir which is filled by rivers and streams. They said the water is able to be used directly from the tap, however boiling water is advisable for us tourists. Solid waste wow this has to be seen to be believed; you could eat your dinner off the landfill area. Rubbish dump landfill 400 tonnes per day, gold fish to monitor water quality, 5000 kw power generator off 30ha, $130m rmb, ecological park, recycling at home. Their objective is to make this an environmental park. Once filled they will use the methane produced from the landfill. The landfill has a life of 25 years of which 7 have already passed. The leachate is processed and they use goldfish, electronic and physical processes to monitor the quality of the treated water. The final waters flow into a stream for irrigation purposes. DOCS_n183951_v1 Page 3 of 5

4 No smell, no flies, no birds, no rubbish blowing around - just amazing. All around the streets and buildings of Rizhao have recycling receptacles like Gisborne. Wastewater treatment plant this plant treats only household waste from a population of about 700k. I asked where it was, the reply was that 90 percent of the plant was below ground, again no smell, they use a biological system and again goldfish are the key monitors of water quality. Plants are planted in tanks to act as filters, with their primary treatment similar to ours. The odour structure is a biological system which looks like a lawn. Wastewater 80k people use fish to monitor quality 84 plants cylinder 2nd process odour is by mircro bugs. Bacteria monitor online in the river. And physical samples every 2 hours manually daily. Filter 200kgs per day solid, cost to build 28rmb I visited many factories, they are just huge, with some having many buildings the size of our local Juken Nissho, containerised trucks are moving in and out all the time to the export ports. Their requirement for raw material is huge. Sugar production Marine Farming institute Many parks and beach development areas Wood processing Flooring companies Solar panel manufacture Rizhao planning Bureau Television manufacturer Marine farming is of great interest in the community, and most of the farming is done on land. It seems easy to do, dig a large hole, line and seal the hole with plastic, have an aerating system, pipe the seawater from the sea, stock with fish, feed the fish and harvest when ready. I have had interest from Tiopira H Rauna regarding inland fish farming as they own land in Gisborne close to the sea. Of very keen interest to me was that a large number of Rizhao street lights were solar powered, some had solar panels as well as small wind turbines. Rizhao is aiming to be a green city so hence the large investment in solar power lighting and hot water heating. I think the manager of the solar company said it was about $NZ4.00 per watt to manufacture the solar panel. I was told that the best hot water solar product costs about $NZ2, GDC street lighting power bill cost $445,000.00, and going up again. This is made up of: Rural: Contact Energy $108, Urban: Meridian Energy $337, DOCS_n183951_v1 Page 4 of 5

5 From my discussions with Rizhao, they are keen to share information and costing for a project here in Gisborne District Council. I am keen to pursue this offer and do a business case to see if it is cheaper to run solar or continue with the conventional system. We have so much sun in Tairawhiti - it seems a waste that all the sun does is burn our skin and dry out our gardens. I think ECCA could be interested in the solar project; we could lead New Zealand if the business case is beneficial. Staff exchanges Another project the Chief Foreign Affairs officer, Mr Wang, suggested was an exchange of staff to share knowledge and experience with each other s council, for a month or two. From what I have seen this will have mutual benefit to our council and the community. All parties will pay their own costs. They are willing to home stay a staff member from Gisborne District Council. More detail when they communicate with my office. Mayor Zhao indicated that he and his council would like to visit Gisborne, it would be appropriate to invite him as he is bringing with him business people who may have an interest in our region s produce. I left Shanghai for Gisborne, I went on the fastest train in the world, the Megalif it took five minutes to travel 30kms costing about $NZ10.00 Lastly may I thank all of our hosts who were very generous in looking after me, all costs were paid by our hosts. DOCS_n183951_v1 Page 5 of 5