Celebrating 20 years of cooperation with Minoh City

2015 marks the 20th year of friendship and cooperation with Minoh City. We are fortunate to be able to celebrate this milestone in each city this year after Mayor Kurata came to Lower Hutt in February with a group of 22 from Minoh. Tomodachi Day saw hundreds attend the ceremony and share in Japanese culture in Lower Hutt.

Many who are connected to Lower Hutt and New Zealand from in and around Minoh gathered to join an official commemoration of the anniversary including Mark Sinclair, the New Zealand Ambassador to Japan. Read his post on the NZ Embassy Facebook page.

Ray Wallace speaks at the 20th anniversary of cooperating cities

Our group grew to 34 visiting from the Hutt for the official celebration on Sunday 4 October and we were treated to Taiko drumming, dancing, singing andand were impressed by the Minoh-based Hutt Club learning a waiata to sing for us.

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Each of us received a certificate of appreciation from Minoh City Mayor Tetsuro Kurata. It as unexpected and very special.

Read more about this on the Minoh City blog - in Japanese.

The ceremony was followed by the New Zealand Autumn Fair - more in my next blog post.

BY JAMES LAMB, HMHFT SECRETARY

One big family

The word family is often used to describe who we are while in Minoh. We've got a friendship agreement between our two cities and we're all making new friends but it's more than that. We feel like family.

The warmth, generosity and hospitality we have experienced in Minoh is very special.

Thank you to Mayor Tetsuro Kurata, the Minoh City Office, the Minoh Asscociation for Global Awareness (MAFGA), the Hutt Club, the Minoh Art Association and the many others who welcomed us to Minoh.

Mayoral delegation members welcomed by Minoh at MAFGA

The Tui Glen School group welcomed at MAFGA by their host families

Thank you for exceptional hospitality, all your hard work, connections between our cities and enthusiasm for work on growing activities between our two cities and countries.

BY JAMES LAMB, HMHFT SECRETARY

Painted ducks?

Hutt Valley Rotary met with their sister club Minoh Rotary Club during Lower Hutt's October visit and joined the regular club meeting at Minoh Kanko Hotel. The two clubs signed a cooperation agreement in 2004 and Hutt club President Tony McCombs grabbed the opportunity to visit the Minoh club with his wife Kate, Mayor Wallace, Deputy Mayor Bassett and council CEO Tony Stallinger.

Minoh Rotary hosts Hutt Valley Rotary and Hutt City Council

The two clubs talked about each other's activities, shared recent successes and proffered projects that could happen between the two clubs and cities. A memorable moment came when Tony McCombs spoke about the annual fundraising duck race along the Hutt River. Tony described how people could buy a duck and paint it, how smaller ducks simply had numbers on them and how the valley's Mayors each had one that looked like them and how businesses joined in the fundingraising spirit by adding costumes to theirs too. By this point you can imagine some of the expressions on the audience's faces were looking a little surprised and confused, until it was clarified that there were indeed plastic ducks. Phew.

Minoh Rotary liked the idea of a local duck race too and are already talking about how that might happen. When speaking to Tony afterwards, I asked him could the race be held in the two cities on the same day. Perhaps you could buy a duck in each race...

BY JAMES LAMB, HMHFT SECRETARY

Fire, fire, fire!

Now we know Mayor Ray Wallace isn't afraid of heights. He was treated to a skylift in the newest of all the Minoh Firetrucks - up over 50ft in the air.

The Mayor was very keen to see the city's emergency services and what they and Council have learned since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. He was extremely impressed with the techology the emergency services operations centre and says that we can learn much from our friends in Minoh.

At the Minoh City Emergency Operations Centre.

Mayor Wallace getting after showing us he's not afraid of heights up in the laddertruck.

"Most people have fire extinguishers in their kitchens and virtually all homes have smoke alarms, something I would like to see in all homes in Lower Hutt," says Mayor Wallace.

"It's pretty clear that residents are well educated with so few call outs for fire services."

When we visited any office or building in Japan, it was pretty clear that health and safety is taken very seriously in this country. In times of need NZ has sent teams to Japan and they've come here. When we mentioned our own innovators to some in Osaka they were very impressed at the custom technology that local firm Fraser Fire and Rescue are pumping out.

The Plimmerton Volunteer Fire Brigade have recently been over and shared some joint training with their counterparts in Porirua's sister city Nisshio, Japan and one of their volunteers, Graeme Penty, has been part of our visit this year in his role as a teacher at Tui Glen School.

Years ago the Wainuiomata Bush Fire Force received a fire truck from Minoh City. There are good connections between firefighters in these cities and perhaps some potential to share a whole lot more.

BY JAMES LAMB, HMHFT SECRETARY

Connecting business potential

Japan: NZ's fifth largest trading partner, fourth largest export market, fourth largest investor, fifth largest in-bound tourist market and third largest source of international students.

Not sure about the language and culture?
Want to know if an market exists?
There's plenty of people to help you take the next step. Friends, advisers, business owners and some very valuable networks.

Ian Kennedy, chairman of the Japan New Zealand Business Council recently spoke to the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce and endorsed what we've seen ourselves. He believes kiwi companies have a lot to offer the Japanese as both countries and markets evolve.

We've been friends with Minoh for 20 years through a number of cultural, sports, education and now arts activities. Mayor Ray Wallace is keen to grow these activities through our business communities too.

Our friendship is a close one and on the current Mayoral delegation Lower Hutt's been able to make connections that businesses acting alone may otherwise not been able to make themselves. This a country where relationships are really important, introductions are vital and any business stems from people getting to know each other well.

The Minoh Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) told us that lot of local people really appreciate New Zealand food and produce - especially wine. We were served a chilled locally made yuzuru bottled drink and conversation quickly turned to local products in each city. Is there an opportunity to have a Hutt / NZ 'shopette' in Minoh and vice versa in Lower Hutt?
Minoh is similar in population size, but quite different in industry and business make up - though what's possible partnering at a regional level with Wellington too?

Mayor Ray Wallace, Deputy Mayor David Bassett, Tony Stallinger as a board member of Hutt Valley of Commerce were able to introduce our city's capabilities and discuss ways business could find new markets and growth opportunities in both countries.

Wellington's sister city Sakai is just a hop, skip and jump across Osaka from Minoh - so is there scope to build on several networks available to us?

We were very priviledged to meet Tsutomu Miyagi, President of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (OCCI) and a few of his team, with their network of 28,000 business members from a city of 3 million people and a wider region of 19 million. The OCCI has formal connections to 50 overseas Chambers including the Auckland Chamber of Commerce - so here's a chance to hold hands as a country. They provide trade opportunities for local and global SMEs and are happy to work with business of all sizes.

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Overlooking the city from the JETRO office in downtown Osaka.

We felt very humbled as Wellington region's just 3% the size of Osaka though we have high-value niche products and innovators that are world-class too. Not only can we export to the Japanese market, we can as well as collaborate to create new products to go further globally.

We introduced our city's capabilities and areas of potential growth. a number of businesses are already partnering in Japan. Our science technology industry, namely new energy, pharmaceutical and advanced manufacturing are sectors we share. Discussion centred around ways we could get to know each other's industries better, identifying opporutnities for collaborating and the changing markets in both countries.

Meeting the Minoh Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Meeting the Osaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Another great team to know is JETRO essentially funded by the Japanese government to champion investment in to Japan and facilitate business parnetships between globally. Meet certain criteria and you can get free office space, a local business advisor and connections to extensive networks. Their Auckland Office is a great one stop shop to understand all the nuts and bolts about business in Japan.

There's a lot of expertise at our reach. JETRO, OCCI, MCCI, and the Asia NZ Foundation, the Japan New Zealand Business Council annual conference is in Wellington next year, and most of all, the growing numbers of friends we have in and around Minoh.

Osaka is a hub for global commercial activity and we've started some valuable connections. It's worth spending the time to have a further look at the potetial here. The building blocks are ceratinly there out for those wanting to take up the challenge.

Reporting from Minoh
James Lamb, HMHFT Trust Secretary

COMING UP IN FUTURE BLOGS:
More teachers, tours, students and Japanese art to come to Lower Hutt, celebrating 20 years with Minoh at the NZ Autumn Fair, must do's when you visit Minoh and more.