Inaugural summit harnesses ethnic business potential

Hundreds gathered in Auckland on Friday to attend the inaugural ethnic business summit.

Organised by the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the Ethnic Xchange Symposium aims to boost innovation, trade and investment.

Ethnic Communities Minister Melissa Lee said migrant groups contributed around $64 billion to New Zealand’s economy in 2021.

“In terms of the GDP outcome for individual ethnic people, it’s not actually above medium rate and that means that our potential needs to be uplifted and actually we need to draw them out,” Lee said. “I think New Zealand’s ethnic communities can make a humongous impact.”

From the left to right: Financial Services Council Chief Executive Kirk Hope; Ethnic Communities Minister Melissa Lee; Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins; and Regulation Minister David Seymour.
Photo: RNZ / Liu Chen

Business representatives from the ethnic community shared stories about their success as well as the challenges they have faced.

Chinese businessman Will Zhang, who came to New Zealand in 2016, said the symposium was exactly what people needed to make their voice heard and make connections.

“As a new immigrant to New Zealand, having that connection or having that integration into the local business ecosystem is one of the biggest challenges,” Zhang said.

“You don’t know anyone,” he said. “You don’t know where to go if you needed anything and you don’t know where the market is. So going out there and really understanding the business environment is very important.”

Zhang is co-founder of EmoEx Technology, which uses artificial intelligence to provide companionship and support to people who have mental and physical health needs.

He said the geo-political environment also meant there could be concern over data safety and privacy, and entrepreneurs needed to be transparent about what they did.

It was a great opportunity for businesspeople to meet like-minded people, Zhang said.

“We share experience coming to the country and doing business here and we can raise our voice to that policy-making level,” he said. “That’s important. I hope this business symposium will [continue] for a very long time.”

From the left to right: New Zealand Airline Academy CEO Jonathan Manuel, Will Zhang, Ranjna Patel and ASEAN Business Council chair Kathleen Morrison.
Photo: RNZ / Liu Chen

Ranjna Patel, founder of Tāmaki Health, agreed the event had brought voices from the ethnic community to the fore.

“The diversity of thought and the diversity of working in a different way has to be exposed to mainstream,” Patel said. “We live in a [colonised] country, but our population is very different.”

In a panel discussion, Patel spoke about the barriers she and her husband encountered when establishing their healthcare business as migrants – even though she was a third-generation New Zealander.

She encouraged people to get their “concept right” and be clear and passionate about what they wanted to do, blending it with mainstream perspectives for acceptance.

“I think we need to be constructive in our diversity of thought,” she said. “But if we don’t adapt it to the environment, in the climate we’re in, it’s set up to fail.”

Patel said it was important to include a diverse range of voices at the decision-making level.

“The decision makers – we’ve got a long way to go until we have a voice at the table to get them to hear,” she said.

She offered some tips for people who planned to take on an adventure.

“Anything you do, do with passion and with 100 percent conviction,” she said. “If you fail, don’t worry. Learn from your mistakes. It doesn’t make you a failure.”

Mervin Singham, chief executive at the Ethnic Communities Ministry
Photo: RNZ / Liu Chen

Mervin Singham, chief executive of the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, said it was helpful to connect people together, including ethnic and mainstream businesses, consulting firms and banks, as well as highlight the problems faced by them.

Singham said ethnic people were a huge force of economic potential, not just for themselves but for New Zealand as a whole.

“There’s a lot more to be done to unlock people’s potential in this zone, so they can contribute the economy much more productively,” he said.

The government should look at its procedures, systems and regulations, while businesses also had to take the lead in resolving problems, he said.

“We’re hoping that this is just the beginning of a journey,” he said.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis, who also attended the symposium, said ethnic communities were not only important to the country’s domestic economy, they were also key to forging international trade relationships.

“As a government, our role is to create the conditions for your success by lifting skills, reducing red tape, helping you to innovate and developing new markets, building and debt enduring infrastructure pipeline,” Willis said.

Judith Collins, a former minister for ethnic communities who is now in charge of the science, innovation and technology portfolio, encouraged people to use technology such as artificial intelligence.

“People worry about losing jobs and don’t you worry about that,” Collins said. “For every piece of technology, there has been fear among us that someone is going to lose their job. You just need to do a better job.”

Collins also encouraged businesses to use their network to grow the economy.

“What I really want to say is … your connections, your ability to work well innovatively and with entrepreneurial spirit are what’s going to grow the economy. Get out there and trade.”