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Global generation needs tripartite business platform: New Zealand minister

Xinhua, May 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

A three-nation university degree in business will be the challenge a New Zealand government minister handed down to business and political leaders from China, the United States and New Zealand Tuesday.

Representatives from the cities of Auckland, Guangzhou and Los Angeles (LA) had to work to create a platform for young people to understand the opportunity and potential of the Asia-Pacific Century, Minister of Business, Innovation and Employment Steven Joyce said at the Tripartite Economic Summit of the three cities.

"We have some very good universities, but my challenge to them and my challenge to you today is to say to them 'Are they international enough?' And does that apply to Guangzhou universities and also to LA universities: 'Are they international enough?'" Joyce said in a keynote speech.

"Can, really, we consider a person - a young person - to have completed a business degree in this day and age without doing some study offshore? If we're really serious about this being the Asia-Pacific Century, can we consider that to be the case? And I don't think we can," he said.

Noting that there was a new concept of sort of tripartite arrangements between universities, which is being trialled around the world, the minister said one really good output from the summit would be a commitment from the respective business delegations to talk to their universities about setting up a tripartite business degree between Auckland, Guangzhou and Los Angeles.

"So a young person from any of those three cities would do a couple of semesters here, a couple of semesters in Guangzhou and a couple of semesters in LA. Imagine the perspective they would get to succeed in this Asia-Pacific Century."

Joyce said the young generation was "born global" and were already studying abroad and applying their qualifications in a global market.

"If we do this right, we will end up one way or another with a single economic area of the Asia-Pacific region which will be a massively powerful engine of growth for all the countries in the region over the next hundred years," he said.

"That's a very powerful vision and the exciting thing about it is that we're closer to it than we think." Endit