The last few weeks have seen me and Sue attend a daunting series of farewell functions.  While this has been somewhat exhausting, above all we have been moved by the range of people who have wanted to mark our time here and bid us farewell.  We have found this very touching, and we greatly appreciate the many kind sentiments expressed.  We have enjoyed our time here a lot.  We are sad to leave, though naturally are keen to be closer to family and friends and to reconnect with our home country that we are proud to represent internationally.

Delivering this year's Anzac Day address, a great privilege

I must also say farewell to this blog as I leave my post as ambassador.  I’ve really enjoyed helping to develop blogging as a tool for our organisation, and to use my blog to inform and interact with a much wider group than I would normally encounter in my routine work.  I said in my first post in June 2010 that I would use the blog to “describe what ambassadors overseas do — well, this one at any rate”.  I also said that I hoped the blog would “show you the sorts of things I do to represent New Zealand’s interests in the Philippines, and to gather information for reporting back on developments in this country that are relevant to New Zealand”.

The range of topics I’ve covered in the blog is some indication of how diverse New Zealand’s interests in the Philippines are.  I hope the blog has helped to raise New Zealanders’ awareness of the Philippines too, as many don’t realise the vibrant political, business and cultural links between our two countries.

Though my blog has ended, you can keep up with the embassy’s work and with news of interesting New Zealand/Philippine links through our Facebook page.  Don’t forget that other ambassadors are still contributing to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade blog pages.  Our organisation will be doing more with social media in future, in line with the wider New Zealand government social media strategy.

In the meantime thanks for reading, and thanks to those of you who have taken the time to contribute to the discussion with your comments.

Andrew

Makati Business Club

‘The forum for constructive ideas’.  That’s the by-line for the prominent Philippine business group the Makati Business Club, which earlier this month marked its 30th anniversary.   At the ceremony to mark the occasion I heard President Aquino highlight the organisation’s role in addressing public policy issues that go beyond business, including its focus against corruption.

The Makati Business Club is one of more than 20 business groups behind the Integrity Initiative, an anti-corruption movement that recently launched the Unified Code of Conduct.  This code is to guide companies that have joined the Integrity Initiative campaign and have signed an integrity pledge, and gives clear descriptions of how company executives and all employees can uphold a high ethical standard their transactions.

Corruption has been in the headlines again in the Philippines, with the recent release of the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International.  The news for this country is mixed.   Some observers have drawn attention to an increase in the Philippines’ score from 2.4 to 2.6 — the index ranges from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (highly clean).  But those same observers have heeded the warning from Transparency International that scores can’t be compared from year to year, as the sources used for the index change each year.

On relative scores the Philippines is now 129th out of the 183 countries surveyed, while last year’s report had it 134th out of the 178 countries measured.

The Philippines has a lot of work to do in the area of reducing corruption, in order to allow businesses to prosper, governments to better serve the people, and Filipinos from all walks of life to face a brighter future.  In President Aquino’s election campaign last year he drew a clear connection between corruption and poverty, with the slogan “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” or “If no one is corrupt, no one will be poor”.  Measures like the Integrity Pledge, and the performance governance system of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia that I’ve mentioned earlier, are important initiatives from the private sector to improve corporate governance and reduce corruption.   But much more is needed, from the public and private sectors alike.

I should note that New Zealand is still in first place in the Transparency International survey, with a score of 9.5.  Naturally this is something we can be proud of but we should remember that, as I’ve commented before, achieving such a score needs a culture of honesty as well as good laws and policies, and maintaining it requires constant vigilance.

Some of the scenery on offer to Rugby World Cup visitors

Attracting visitors was a major objective and 85,000 people were expected.  How well did we do?  The results are just out from Statistics New Zealand, the government’s national statistics office. More than 130,000 people travelled to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup.  This isn’t just guesswork or a statistical comparison with visitor numbers at the same time last year — people arriving at airports were asked to tick a box on their immigration form to indicate whether they had come to New Zealand for the tournament.

Most were from the major rugby-playing nations, especially our neighbour across the Tasman, the UK, France and South Africa.  But people from other nations featured too, including 141 from the Philippines.  Perhaps not surprisingly the majority of these were expats, mainly British or New Zealand citizens living in the Philippines, but more than 60 were Filipinos.  In a country where rugby is fast growing in popularity from very small beginnings, that’s pleasing to see.

These figures are just some of the mass of information available from Statistics New Zealand.  It’s well worth checking out their website if you’re looking for figures or data about New Zealand.  The department has just done something that probably few national statistics offices ever have — it has scooped the best organisation prize in this year’s Plain English Campaign awards.  I’m impressed with anyone who can interpret statistics and make them understandable, and to explain them in plain English is a real achievement.  As the department’s chief executive Geoff Bascand said: “Numbers are the essence of our work, but we need to tell stories about the numbers that are both interesting and accurate”.

One of the embassy’s key goals is to advance and protect New Zealand’s trade interests abroad.  There are two parts to that.  One is the government-to-government work of negotiating and implementing free trade agreements, and dealing with any market access barriers.  The other vital part of our work is to promote and support New Zealand businesses overseas.  In general,  day-to-day dealings with businesses are handled by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, an integral part of the embassy, while on the foreign affairs and trade side of the shop we deal with government-to-government work.  But there’s no firm divide between these two areas and we work very closely together.

It’s very satisfying to help New Zealand businesses open doors in the Philippines, and I am delighted to work with them where my involvement can make a difference.  I’ve written about some of this work here, here and here.

ANZCHAM members' meeting

The embassy has some very useful allies when it comes to advancing New Zealand business interests in the Philippines.  The Australia New Zealand Chamber of Commerce (ANZCHAM) this year celebrates its 30th anniversary, which is a credit to its founders and the members, officers and staff who have worked so hard to make it the active and effective chamber it is today.  ANZCHAM relies heavily on its corporate sponsors, whose generous support makes this all possible.

ANZCHAM is also a member of the Joint Foreign Chambers in the Philippines, along with chambers of commerce representing the interests of businesses from Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea and the USA, as well as Pamuri, which is like a chamber of commerce for foreign multinational companies’ regional offices.   The Joint Foreign Chambers did a sterling piece of work last year with their blueprint for increased competitiveness, higher productivity, and faster, more inclusive growth, called “Arangkada Philippines: a business perspective”.  The website for Arangkada (which means ‘accelerate’) is worth checking out for its interactive wheel highlighting the seven sectors the JFC recommends for priority attention.  It’s also a very useful source of information about the Philippine economy.

PNZBC members' meeting at the New Zealand official residence in Manila

The work of ANZCHAM is complemented by the Philippines New Zealand Business Council (PNZBC), now in its 18th year.  That’s an impressive record, too, and I compliment the board, members, staff and sponsors who put effort into fostering New Zealand–Philippines ties.   Many of the new business links between New Zealand and the Philippines, such as the ones I’ve blogged about before, are profiled at PNZBC members’ forums.

Advancing New Zealand’s economic growth and international competitiveness is important work.  It’s great to have active partners in the Philippines to work with.

The circle is now complete for the ASEAN Australia New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, or AANZFTA, which New Zealand and the Philippines are both members of.  The agreement came into force almost two years ago and both countries were in it from the beginning.  More countries joined later, and membership is about to be completed following the annoucement that AANZFTA will soon enter into force for Indonesia .  This is important news.  Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most populous country, and its economy accounts for more than one-third of ASEAN’s gross domestic product.

International trade drives the New Zealand economy

AANZFTA is a high-quality agreement that benefits all countries in the region.  Now negotiations are over and membership is complete, businesses in the region have to make the most of the opportunities this free trade agreement presents.  I’ve enjoyed working with colleagues in the Australian embassy, the Philippine government and business groups to help spread the word about AANZFTA in the Philippines.

The month of November has also seen good news about the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP.  This is a free trade agreement being negotiated by nine countries in the region, including New Zealand which was one of the architects of the original Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.   The leaders of the nine negotiating countries announced that they had agreed on the broad outline of the agreement, and that the detailed negotiations would be completed within a year.  It’s an ambitious target, just as the leaders have set an ambitious goal of a high-quality, comprehensive trade agreement.

Japan has now said that it wants to join the nine countries negotiating the TPP, something New Zealand’s trade minister has welcomed while restating our goal of a comprehensive and high-quality agreement.  Canada and Mexico have also announced their wish to become part of the negotiation.   It’s hoped that the TPP will eventually expand to include other Asia-Pacific countries, potentially including the Philippines, if they share the goal of shaping a regional agreement with the high standards worthy of a 21st century trade agreement.

Connecting New Zealand (photos by Ports of Auckland Ltd)

And let’s not forget the World Trade Organization either.  The Doha round might be moving more slowly than WTO members originally expected, but the organisation is still making progress.  After 18 years of work on joining the WTO (yes, accession negotiations can take a long time too), the terms for Russia to join the organisation have been agreed so the country can become a WTO member next month.   This means all the world’s major economies will be part of the trading rules system that the WTO establishes.  For New Zealand, Russia joining the WTO is particularly important as we are negotiating a free trade agreement with Russia and its customs union partners Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The WTO is not only for larger countries, and two tiny countries in New Zealand’s part of the world are on the verge of joining.  Samoa should become a member at the meeting next month of WTO trade ministers.  The accession package for Vanuatu has been agreed by WTO members, and if ratified by Vanuatu by the end of December the country will become the WTO’s 154th member.

Free trade agreements may seem like dry stuff, and reading the text of one would give most people a headache.  But the end result is that they can make a real difference to ordinary people’s lives — businesses and consumers alike.  As a member of the Association of South-East Asian Nations the Philippines has a ringside seat as the economies of this region become more closely integrated, a process New Zealand is certainly a part of.

Researchers in 80 countries made the same requests for budget information, with six detailed questions on maternal health, aid effectiveness and environmental policies.  Overall the results were disappointing — more than half the requests yielded no information at all, and only one in four led to full information being provided.

The good news for New Zealand is that we came out at the top of the table.   Six questions generated six fully-compliant responses without any follow-up being needed — the only country where this happened.  We weren’t the fastest responder, though, with an average of 32 calendar days.  Our freedom of information legislation says the requested information must be provided “as soon as reasonably practicable”, and not more than 20 working days after the request is made.   That’s about the same period as the time recorded in the trial, and extensions are possible for dealing with complex enquiries or if interdepartmental consultations are needed.

Some of the study’s findings aren’t a surprise.  The longer a country has had freedom of information legislation, the better and faster the response rate.   Our Official Information Act (as it’s called) was passed nearly 30 years ago, and equivalent provisions were extended to local government a few years later.  How well government complies with the legislation is overseen by the ombudsman, as I’ve mentioned before.

The study also showed that countries with freedom of information legislation provided significantly more information than those without.  No surprise there.  And while no country without freedom of information legislation provided answers in the absence of reminders, the Philippines stood out by coming very close.   This country doesn’t have freedom of information legislation, though the study’s authors pointed out that in the Philippines the constitutional guarantee of people’s right to information “has been used to some effect in practice to access information”.

It’s long been recognised in the Philippines that freedom of information legislation is needed to support the provisions in the 1987 constitution about access to information.  In fact such legislation has been before congress since 1992, but still hasn’t been passed.

Soon after President Aquino took office Philippine business groups and foreign chambers of commerce urged him to see the freedom of information legislation given priority.   In their report Arangkada, which I’ve mentioned before, the joint foreign chambers of commerce also proposed that in the meantime the president should issue an executive order instructing government agencies to release appropriate information on government policies and procurement.

Working under full public scrutiny does require a culture change by public servants (and government ministers).  In New Zealand’s experience that comes more easily than you might expect.   Now virtually a whole generation of officials and politicians has known no other environment.

As an independent review of our two freedom of information laws said last year: “overall the acts have achieved their purpose.  They have changed the culture about the availability of official information.   Our society is now much more open than it was”.   One of the reviewers said: “The Official Information Act is one of the best things that has happened in government in the past 50 years.  It has led to much more openness and made it much easier for people to find out what is going on in government”.

The right to know is an important part of a government’s accountability to its people.

The numbers are mind-boggling.  According to the government’s own Mines and Geosciences Bureau the Philippines ranks second in the world for gold reserves and third for copper, and in the top five for overall mineral reserves.  That’s an estimated US$1,400 billion worth of mineral reserves, a figure that’s hard to comprehend.

A gold mine in the Philippines — should there be more of them?

Less than 2% of those reserves is covered by mining permits, and mining has long been controversial in this country.   A legal challenge to modern mining legislation delayed its implementation for five years, though after a supreme court decision in 2005 affirming the legislation the industry began a comeback.  But there are still plenty of rocks in the road.  A host of NGOs and the Catholic church strongly oppose mining, and some local governments are implementing their own anti-mining measures that many would argue are inconsistent with national legislation.  Opponents of mining point to the environmental impacts, and fear both social disruption and loss of sovereignty through foreign investment in mining ventures.

Those who support industry gaining access to mineral resources point out that responsible mining can make a major contribution to the sustainable economic development of the country, and lift communities out of poverty.  It’s no surprise that the joint foreign chambers of commerce highlighted mining as one of the seven ‘big winners’ in the advocacy report Arangkada, that detailed well-considered recommendations for accelerating growth in the Philippines.  Foreign chambers and Philippine business groups have called on the government to act decisively against local government bans on mining.

There’s a mining link between the Philippines and New Zealand.  Oceana Gold is a Pacific Rim gold producer, listed on stock exchanges in New Zealand, Australia and Canada.   Its producing assets are all in New Zealand — two mines at Macraes Flat in Otago and one at Reefton on the South Island’s West Coast.   I met the Oceana Gold board in Manila recently, and they’re excited about the potential of the gold mine they’re now developing at Didipio in Luzon in the Philippines.

Recent news about Oceana Gold’s activities in New Zealand got me thinking about managing the environmental impacts of mining that many people are concerned about.   The company has just been given permission to expand its operations at Macraes Flat, through what’s known in New Zealand as a resource consent.

One of Oceana Gold's mines in New Zealand (photo by Ulrich Lange, Dunedin)

In the resource consent process the company’s application is notified publicly, people can make submissions, and there is a public hearing.  In this case, the seven-day hearing was held in September and the decision announced this week.  The hearing considered the balance of impacts and benefits on the community, and concluded that the effects of the project could either be tolerated, avoided, mitigated or remedied. It’s interesting to note that many of the conditions for dealing with the project’s impacts were finalised between the parties during the hearing itself, so the hearing is also a way of finding solutions.  Now the expansion of the Oceana Gold operation at Macraes Flat is good to go for an estimated eight more years.

Mining has been important for New Zealand for a long time — it even features on our national coat of arms.  We’ve come a long way from the pioneering gold-rush days, but the industry is still important to the economy.  Regulatory control of mining has come a long way too.   Our resource management system aims to protect the environment, but is based on the idea of sustainably managing our resources — striking a balance between protection and usage, through a decision-making process that’s under full public scrutiny.

We don’t always get it right.  Historical damage caused by one mine (before the days of resource consents, it has to be said) near a town where I used to live still blights the landscape and is costing a lot to repair.  And mining can be dangerous, as we have been reminded only recently.  It is healthy that there’s debate between those who want less mining and those who argue controls are too strict.  The end result is that, as best we can, New Zealand strikes a balance between losing economic opportunity and protecting its unique environment.

The Philippine government has challenges ahead to find where the balance should lie for this country.   The Philippines is sitting on a gold mine, figuratively speaking.  The arguments on both sides are loud and clear.  What is needed is a way of channelling the discourse, and making and enforcing rational decisions on individual projects.  Will mining become one of the seven ‘big winners’ that could make such a difference to the people of the Philippines?

The Rena stuck on a reef off the New Zealand coast

A ship, a dark night and a reef.  When the container ship Rena ran aground last month while heading for the port of Tauranga in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, significant environmental damage threatened.  Certainly a large amount of fuel oil spilled from the vessel, much of which washed up on nearby coasts.  Containers toppled off the ship and many spilled their contents in the ocean.

An event like this triggers a large response, involving many agencies of national and local government, the military, and thousands of members of the public who have volunteered to assist with cleaning up beaches and rescuing wildlife.  The work is still going on, with salvage experts on board the ship pumping out the last of the oil.  They’re working in difficult and dangerous conditions as the ship is close to breaking apart.

The news isn’t all bad, though.   The oil reached only a small part of the coastline, and the effects on wildlife have been less than expected.  As New Zealand gears up for summer, visitors should know that only a very few of the country’s spectacular beaches are affected, and New Zealand is certainly open for business and travel.

The grounding of the Rena did turn a spotlight on Philippine–New Zealand relations.  When two countries like New Zealand and the Philippines have more and more to do with each other, there will at times be difficulties and tragedies affecting the relationship, as I’ve commented before.

A container and contents on Mount Maunganui beach

The ship’s captain and crew were Filipinos, and I was troubled to see a few media reports of antagonism to the Filipino community in general as a result of the incident.  The Philippine embassy in Wellington has looked into this, talking to members of the Filipino community in Tauranga and getting a staff member in the area to investigate.   They found a different picture from that painted in the media reports: the “negative reactions to the Filipino people there are few and are not reflective of the general sentiments of the public in Tauranga”.  That’s encouraging to hear, and I’m pleased that Ambassador Virginia Benavidez is taking every opportunity during her introductory calls to dispel rumours of an anti-Filipino backlash.

All but two of the crew have returned home.  The captain and one other officer remain in New Zealand as they have been charged with maritime safety offences relating to the incident, and will face court trials in the future.  Legal action is taken regardless of the nationality of the alleged offenders.

The growing Filipino community in New Zealand is as concerned as anyone about the effects of the ship’s grounding.  The embassy has called for Pinoys living in New Zealand — Piwis — to draw on the “time-honoured spirit of bayanihan”, or community spirit.  Filipino community groups are organising ‘Pinoy brigades’ to join the thousands of volunteers in the Bay of Plenty clean-up operation.

The Philippine–New Zealand relationship is sound enough not to be threatened by an event such as the grounding of the Rena, and the real spirit of Kiwis and Pinoys has shone through.

Penguins cleaned of oil being released in an enclosure (all photos from Maritime New Zealand)

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw raised the coveted Webb Ellis trophy to the roars of appreciation from the ‘Stadium of four million’ that New Zealand has become for the entire Rugby World Cup tournament.

New Zealand, proud host of the 2011 Rugby World Cup

New Zealanders are passionate about rugby.  The Rugby World Cup, though, was about much more than the game.  New Zealanders from one end of the country to the other were proud hosts of this four-yearly event, adopting teams, accommodating visitors, and having one long series of parties.

Why is a nation of just over four million people so devoted to rugby that it is the world champion in this game?  A Spanish photographer Nacho Hernandez, himself a keen rugby player, explores this in an extraordinary photo gallery and blog.   He focuses on the importance of fostering rugby at the grass roots, resulting in “a combination of nation-wide passion for the sport, tradition, and a very proud sense of having a legacy that has to be protected“.

Nacho’s photos are well worth a look, as they capture New Zealanders’ personal involvement in the sport.   And the connection with the Philippines?  In his other photojournalism projects Nacho takes a good look at the Philippines, including its passion for religion.  Given the rapidly increasing support in the Philippines for rugby, which I’ve blogged about here and here, maybe one day Nacho might document the grass roots support for the sport in this country.

This year's UN handbook

If you want to know something about the UN, chances are it will be in the handbook.  So much so that this publication is known as the informal ‘bible’ of the UN to those who use it — diplomats, foreign ministry officials, academics and NGOs around the world.

The handbook is also an invaluable resource for journalists, libraries, schools, and interested members of the public.  It is still the only comprehensive printed guide to the UN system and how it works — summarising all UN organisations and providing essential information about their aims, structures and membership.  Find out here how to obtain this 460-page publication in Manila.

Publishing the handbook is just part of New Zealand’s long-standing and practical commitment to the United Nations.  New Zealand was a founding member of the organisation, and our Prime Minister at the time, the long-serving Peter Fraser, “assumed international stature as a leader of small nations” opposing the granting of veto rights to the great powers.  He also argued forcefully for strengthening the UN’s peacekeeping functions, and played a leading role in establishing the UN trusteeship system and elevating the Economic and Social Council to be a principal body of the UN.

New Zealand's ambassador at the UN, Hon Jim McLay, presenting a copy of the handbook to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last year

New Zealand’s been very active in the UN since its foundation.  We’ve served three times on the UN Security Council, the last time in 1993–94, and are standing for the council again for the 2015–16 term.