PM brushes aside business comments - ‘We are open for business’
Friday, 19 April 2024
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has brushed aside concerns from a member of the business delegation travelling with him about the language of New Zealand being “open for business” being unhelpful.
“We are open for business, we are under new management because we are driving very positively into a much bigger future for New Zealand,“ Luxon said at a media conference in Manila.
He said his comments about business were an “and” - “we're building on what's come from before.”
“We are just stepping up the intensity, with more ambition, as we know we've got fantastic businesses that have been doing great, a great job.”
He was speaking to reporters in Manilla on Friday, the last day of his Southeast Asia trip.
During a business lunch in Manila on Thursday, where members of the delegation met at Raffles Hotel, Comvita chairperson Brett Hewlett suggested he was against using language to describe New Zealand, such as being open for business and under new management.
Luxon, who frequently uses those phrases, was in the audience. Hewlett also spoke about the notion of having “new solutions to old problems”, saying there was value in using old solutions as well as knowledge and experience. He specially named iwi-solutions.
Te Matatini chairman Sir Selwyn Parata acknowledged Hewlett’s comments.
Asked what the point of bringing a business delegation if he was not going to take on board feedback, Luxon said he talked to the business delegation “all the time”.
“I know many of them very, very well, but … I wouldn’t construe those comments in that way.
“It’s an ‘and’. We're building on what's come from before but we're also having a big ambition.”
Friday is Luxon’s second day in Manila. He had a bilateral meeting with Marcos on Thursday and then stayed the night at Malacañang Palace’s presidential guest house.
Luxon praised his host in the Philippines, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, saying he his a ‘huge respecter of the international rule of law“.
“As a new leader coming into the Philippines, he has been quite strident about making sure that the rule of law is is something that he and his government are very much focused on .”
Luxon did not raise human rights concerns around the war on drugs in the Philippines during his meeting with Marcos.
Luxon said the Philippines has its own policies.
'We work with our partners across the region. We raise our concerns when we have them. Our focus was on other things.'
Luxon said regional tensions was a big part of the conversation with Marcos, as was economic challenges and people-to-people links
He added that Marcos was making 'positive steps' in the Philippines.
After their bilateral meeting, Luxon and Marcos said they shared “serious concern” over tensions in the South China Sea.
Luxon’s trip comes as the Philippines and the US are set to hold military drills outside Philippines’ territorial waters from next week, which China said would bring “greater insecurity for itself”, according to The Guardian.