It’s a privilege to represent New Zealand on the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). I’m here in #Hangzhou, #China, this week for the third #ABAC meeting of the year.
The theme is very much living in the digital age and embracing the connectivity that being digital enabled brings to business, to cities and to society.
Today stated with a tour of China Mobile and a discussion on the future of 5G. This was followed by visit to #Alibaba. As an aside, Jack Ma used to be an ABAC member for China, sadly before my time.
I’ve included some photos of Alibaba’s Electronic World Trade Platform: Empowering Inclusive Globalisation to empower SMEs, to support young people and women, to promote inclusive trade, and to facilitate global consumption.
It’s timely to see the emphasis placed on small business by Alibaba as, in two weeks, on behalf of the NZ Small Business Council, I will present our report to Stuart Nash, Minister for Small Business. If adopted by cabinet, it could be transformational for New Zealand’s small business economy, if the ideas are well executed.
One of the pics shows the ET City Brain which was insightful given my thoughts are on #Tauranga. This system helps the city think and make decisions by analysing real time data while providing advice on ‘Effective Governance’ and ‘Reasonable Decision Making’ in terms of roading, traffic decisions and the deployment of emergency services. Really quite extraordinary.
Lastly - I love the inscription above the door: “Imagination is the First Productivity”. Let’s start imagining what Tauranga could be and plan ‘effectively’ for the inevitable growth.
Oh - and I made friends with some #digitalnatives living in a #digitalworld. These kids were amazing! They had taken, edited, filtered, and sent a pic, via the #WeChat app, in under 10 secs! As their jump suits says, “Magic Power”.
