Education Minister Trevor Mallard announced today that Hong Kong's Secretary for Education and Manpower (labour issues), Mrs Fanny Law, had accepted his invitation to visit New Zealand this week to explore possibilities to collaborate more closely in education.

"I am delighted Mrs Law will be visiting our country. With its well-educated workforce, Hong Kong has led the shift to knowledge-based economies in our region. As we look towards our own future, I think there is good potential for New Zealand and Hong Kong to co-operate in education to enhance our mutual knowledge bases," Trevor Mallard said.

"International education is becoming a major industry for New Zealand with the return to our economy expected to reach $1billion next year. Our comparative advantage in providing education services in the region could see international education right up there with agriculture as one of New Zealand's leading industries," Trevor Mallard said.

Mrs Law is visiting New Zealand to explore possibilities for both countries to collaborate to in teacher training, language education, secondary school exchange programmes, and tertiary education.

"Hong Kong is already New Zealand's sixth largest source of international secondary school students and seventh largest market in the tertiary sector. Hong Kong is a friendly and familiar place for many New Zealanders. I would like to see us doing more to tap into Hong Kong's success," Trevor Mallard said.

Mrs Law is visiting schools and universities in Auckland, and meet leading educationalists and education product and services developers this week.

Next week Mrs Law will be in Wellington for a series of government agency meetings.

Mrs Law is also Secretary for Manpower (labour issues) in Hong Kong.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

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