Finance Minister Michael Cullen flies to Tokyo on Saturday on the first leg of a two week, five-centre investment trip taking in Japan, London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Singapore.

Highlights include meetings with: the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, the Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Edward George, the Singapore Finance Minister, Dr Richard Hu, and ratings agency Standard and Poors.

Dr Cullen will meet mostly with investors and investment and government agencies in Singapore, Japan and England. He will focus on economic policy design in Ireland.

And in Edinburgh, he will concentrate on the financial sector.

"Edinburgh, despite its nearness to London, has managed to maintain itself as a highly successful financial centre. There may be lessons in its experience for New Zealand vis a vis the larger Australian finance market," Dr Cullen said.

Ends

ITINERARY DR CULLEN.

TOKYO

Monday, July 2

10.30am: Morgan Stanley, meeting with President Thierry Porte and Chief Economist, Robert Feldman.

12.30pm: Nomura Securities.

Early afternoon: State Minister of Financial Affairs, Hakuo Yanagisawa.

4pm: Governor of the Bank of Japan, Mr Hayami.

5pm: Vice-Minister of Finance for International Affairs, Mr Kuroda.

7pm: Dinner at New Zealand Embassy with senior politicians, business leaders and economists.

LONDON

Wednesday, July 4

8am: Breakfast hosted by the Financial Times. [Presentation]

9.45am: Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Edward George.

10.45am: John Coombe, Senior Executive of research based pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.

12.15pm: Lunch hosted by the New Zealand/Australia Chamber of Commerce. [Speech]

4.30pm: Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.

6.45pm: Speech to the UK Branch of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Thursday, July 5

8.30am: Breakfast hosted by Barclays' Capital. [Presentation]

12.15pm: Investment function at Deutsche Bank.

DUBLIN

Friday, July 6

7.30am: Breakfast with senior business leaders hosted by the Horton Group.

9.45am: Minister of State, Department of Finance, Martin Cullen.

11.30am: Revenue Chairman, Dermot Quigley.

12.45pm: Lunch with Dr Michael Somers, Chief Executive of the National Treasury Management Agency.

2.45pm: Colm Reagan, Deputy Chief Executive of Forfas.

4pm: Fiscal Studies Foundation Chairman, Dr Donal de Buitleir.

EDINBURGH

Monday, July 9

7am: Chairman Stagecoach Group, Brian Souter.

8.30am: Chief Executive Scottish Financial Enterprise, Ray Perman.

10am: Minister of Finance and Regional Development, Angus MacKay.

11.15am: Chief Executive of Standard Life, Sandy Crombie.

12.30pm: Investor lunch hosted by the Edinburgh Fund Managers. [Presentation]

SINGAPORE

Wednesday, July 11

7.30am: Breakfast with the Singapore/New Zealand Business Council and guests. [Speech]

10am: Minister of Finance, Dr Richard Hu.

11am: Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Monetary Authority, Brigadier General Lee Hsien Loong.

12 noon: Lunch with senior officials of the Government Investment Corporation.

2.30pm: Standard and Poors

Thursday, July 12

10am: Site visit to IT Capital/Deep Video Imaging.

***Dr Cullen also has a number of media interviews organised in each of the centres he is visiting.

© Scoop Media

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