Seriously Asia Revisited: 2022

2022 is proving to be another unsettled year. The COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the climate crisis, and even the parliamentary occupation have all tested our people and systems.  

While we respond to these challenges, it pays to keep a weather eye on the future. All too often we think we have come to the end of fighting one fire, only for another to emerge somewhere else.  

But it’s not all about crisis. Thinking ahead is also about spotting opportunities. We might be great at fighting fires, but do we have the right tools and skills, as a nation, to pick the best opportunities for New Zealand? What do we need to do today, that makes sure we’re ready for tomorrow? 

After two years, now's the time to reconnect with Asia | Photo: Unsplash

This year, while borders are slowly reopening and offshore travel resuming, the Asia New Zealand Foundation is leading a major review of New Zealand’s relationships across Asia. Called Seriously Asia Revisited: A roadmap for 2023 and beyond, the review will ask critical questions about how New Zealand is faring in its Asia relationships, in what ways Asia is evolving, and where and how New Zealand needs to position itself for the coming decades.    

The Foundation undertook a similar project nearly twenty years ago, which took a fresh look at the opportunities and challenges of New Zealand stepping up its efforts in Asia.

At the time, we recognized the tremendous trade prospects for New Zealanders in Asia, and the importance of building social and cultural connections, but also identified many areas where we needed to do better. It was no longer useful to talk about “Asia” as a single, homogenous entity. We needed to better understand the individual countries of Asia and upskill ourselves in ways that would enable us to better identify and articulate New Zealand’s value proposition and where we should invest our finite resources.   

Fast-forward nearly 20 years and it’s clear New Zealand’s relationships across Asia have deepened considerably, and our general awareness of the diversity within Asia has markedly improved.

Other aspects of our relations have become more challenging to manage. The rise of China has presented incredible trade opportunities but has also come with complex security concerns. Our relationship with India remains woefully underdeveloped but without a clear pathway for improvement. Rising authoritarianism, and the breakdown of international law and rules that we’re seeing in the South China Sea and elsewhere are testing our multilateral skills. In short, Asia is becoming even more consequential to New Zealand’s future, but even more complicated to engage with.   

No matter which way you look at it, what happens in Asia will impact New Zealand’s security, prosperity and development, and will impact global climate change and sustainability. Understanding these changes and being able to determine where the risks and opportunities lie, is going to be critical for New Zealand. This is the job of Seriously Asia Revisited: A roadmap for 2023 and beyond.  

Drawing on some of New Zealand’s leading voices and researchers on Asia, we are going to put forward a collection of recommendations across a range of sectors including political and security; trade, tourism and investment; society and culture; and sustainable development and innovation. 

New surveys, undertaken in both New Zealand and Asia, will help inform the conversation, building on the Foundation’s annual Perceptions of Asia research that has helped to support an informed public debate about New Zealanders’ Asia engagement since 1994.   

Despite the impacts of Covid-19, our research today tells us that New Zealanders believe it is critical to build political, social, and economic ties with Asia, and that many New Zealanders consider Asia-related competencies, including languages and understanding of cultural protocols, to be important skills for New Zealand’s future workforce. We also know, however, that just under half of all New Zealanders consider themselves to know little-to-nothing about Asia, and that many kids are entering New Zealand’s school system multilingual and exiting monolingual.

In short, we know Asia is important, and we have some successes to be proud of, but more work is needed to ensure we are equipped as a country to thrive in the future.      

Today, New Zealanders of Asian heritage make up 15 percent of our population, up from roughly seven percent at the time we were first hosted Seriously Asia in 2003. Ultimately, this may be one of the most important statistics for our work. When we look at Aotearoa New Zealand today compared to twenty years ago, we have become a hugely diverse society, and this is a core strength when it comes to forging international relations and thriving in Asia.

The challenge now is to go from ‘being diverse’, to embracing it. To utilising the talents we have, through our people, to go from fighting fires to planting seeds that will flourish in years to come. 

We look forward to sharing our findings at the end of 2022.