Showcasing Aotearoa New Zealand: Clayton Kimpton discusses New Zealand's involvement in Expo 2020 Dubai.

• Author: Kimpton, Clayton
• Position: United Arab Emirates

New Zealand does not attend every Expo. The Cabinet considers recommendations from officials as to whether or not an Expo is something strategically that we should participate in. The last one we participated in was in Shanghai in 2010. We did not attend the next two Expos--Milan (2015) and Astana (2017)--because there was no strong strategic reason to do so. Our participation in Expo 2020 Dubai was driven in equal parts by our trade relationship with the United Arab Emirates, our tenth largest trading partner, and the Gulf Cooperation Council states (sixth or seventh largest), and by the fact that the Expo in Dubai, which has a diverse population, would attract more global visitors than local visitors, compared with Shanghai, where 95 per cent were local visitors. This Expo was expected to have 70 per cent international visitors.

Finally, the diplomatic and strategic relationships with the UAE are very sound. It is an important relationship in terms of the Middle East. It is also an important relationship in terms of our connection with the Emirates airline both in terms of passengers and freight. It is a proven re-export hub, through which a lot of New Zealand product passes. It is also our access to North Africa, which for a number of New Zealand companies is also an important market.

The Cabinet agreed at the end of 2016 that New Zealand should participate in Expo 2020 Dubai. The original appropriation was $53 million. Following the onset of the pandemic, and the subsequent postponement of the Expo for a year, a further $7.78 million was provided to meet additional costs that resulted from the delay. These were very significant investments on behalf of New Zealand, but they were also an opportunity for New Zealand to stand on the world stage and talk about who we are and what is the next iteration of our story.

New Zealand's previous Expo involvement, in Shanghai, was very successful. A close-out report from it pointed to a number of things that would continue to advance our story and our positioning in the world. One of the things to come out of Shanghai was the establishment of the New Zealand Story Group, a multi-organisation country branding agency. The purpose of that development was to ensure that our story as a country was consistent and was available not only to the government but also to New Zealand exporters. It was very influential in helping us put together the exhibition in Dubai.

Lastly, one of the really important things that ministers provided us with right from 2016 on, and it is something that continued throughout despite changes of government, was guidance that Maori culture and values were an integral part of our participation in the Expo, rather than being left as an entertainment part of our participation. A big focus of what we did was to ensure that Maori values were at the core of our story and everything that we did at the Expo and that we presented a very holistic Aotearoa New Zealand story that had that strong Maori story at its centre.

Universal challenge

One of the challenges for us in New Zealand, but actually a challenge that was across the world, was to explain that an Expo was not a trade show. This Expo was going to be one of the largest there has ever been in terms of both...