Winners announced for NZ China Trade Assn

Winners announced for the New Zealand China Trade Awards

Antibody-rich colostrum, noise cancellation solutions and leather goods are the mainstay business offerings from this year's winners of the New Zealand China Trade Awards.

Winners were announced at the New Zealand China Trade Association (NZCTA) awards dinner last night, where Prime Minister Helen Clark addressed attendees with a call to New Zealand businesses to get involved in an opportunity-rich China.

Winner of the "Doing Business in China" award, Singapore-based Richina Pacific Limited began operating in China in 1996 with the acquisition of the Blue Zoo aquarium and the launch of a leather business in Shanghai.

Richina also collected the New Zealand China Trade Association Supreme Award (which came with a $20,000 prize package) with judges crediting the company as a world leader in production of quality finished leather for the garment, upholstery and footwear sectors and recognising its acquisition of a Chinese SOE in October this year as the first by a foreign listed company.

The "Business Excellence Award" was won by Healtheries for their success in China with the sale of products containing colostrum, antibody-rich milk produced in the first days of lactation.

Sales of Healtheries' colostrum products have grown steadily and retail value in China now exceeds $20 million.

Phitek Systems, designer and manufacturer of advanced noise cancellation solutions, won the "Entrepreneur and Innovation Award".

In 2003, Phitek CEO Mark Donaldson was managing a company with turnover of close to $300,000. Now the company is a $10 million operation with forecasts for 2005/2006 at over $20 million.

Background The New Zealand China Trade Awards were established by the New Zealand China Trade Association (NZCTA) to recognise those businesses that have launched successful business relationships between New Zealand and China.

The awards are in their first year and have been designed to highlight the opportunities presented by China's population of 1.3 billion people and set up New Zealand businesses to take advantage of a Free Trade Agreement with China.

Following FTA progress at the recent APEC summit in Santiago, Chile, Prime Minister Helen Clark made a call to the New Zealand business community to take advantage of the new opportunities created by the trade deals forged with Asia.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has set up an intergovernmental taskforce to try to get exporters up to speed with new possibilities from the deals with China.

Prize packages for the awards were: * NZCTA Supreme Award - $20,000 prize package including two business class tickets to China on Cathay Pacific and $10,000 cash * Business Excellence Award - $3000 in services from DHL International * Entrepreneur and Innovation Award - $3000 in services from Cosco * Doing Business in China/Investor in China Award - $3000 in services from King and Wood lawyers

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