New Zealand India Trade Alliance (NZITA) recently held an event under the series NZ-India Dialogue (Connect, Enable and Advocate). The event was held in
Auckland on Tuesday, 01 Dec 2020 ay EY Building and the Key note Speaker was David Pine. David Pine is New Zealand’s
High Commissioner to India. He is also High Commissioner Designate to Bangladesh and Ambassador Designate to Nepal.
David talked about the difficulties in settling into the job of High Commissioner in India in the middle of a global
pandemic.In order to be successful in the Indian Market, David Pine stressed on:Long term relationshipsNZ Companies need to provide a solution, as opposed to making a saleWork outside the parameters of FTA, as India has concerns about free trade agreements. FTAs in the past, do not seem to
have worked for the benefit of India.The transparency and the shared democratic values augur well for the future relationship.
Giri Gupta, Chairman welcomed the speakers and the audience and thanked EY for hosting the event.
Surinder Ogra, General Secretary spoke about the recent Trade mission to India in Feb 2020. He said that the biggest learning from the mission was that
NZ Inc needs to think beyond commodities to services, technology and tech-transfers, focused on solving dilemmas in the
Indian market. This is not services instead of products, but rather services in addition to products approach.
Rt Honorable Dr. Richard Worth, Vice Chairman, in his vote of thanks said that NZITA is committed to delivering unique propositions to its members and the wider
public.