Honourable Helen Clark

Helen Clark became Prime Minister of New Zealand in December 1999 and entered her third successive term in office in 2005. As of 2006, she is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 20th most powerful woman in the world. She studied at the Universtiy of Auckland, where she majored in politics and graduated with a MA (Hons) in 1974. Her MA thesis research focused on rural political behaviour and representation.
Helen Clark first gained election to the New Zealand House of Representatives in the 1981 general election as one of four women who entered Parliament on that occasion. From then on she became involved with the Labour Party taking on the role in various cabinets and worked her way up to the postion she holds today.

The New Zealand delegation to the APEC Conference were able to spend a good twenty minutes with our Prime Minster which meant we were could discuss issues that were being raised at the conference and how these were likely to effect New Zealand.

This years Summit’s theme was ‘ Working Towards One Community: Finding New Opportunities for Shared Development” and provided opportunities for business leaders to hear presentations from and to engage in discussions with APEC leaders, policy makers, academia, and other CEOs on the most critical economic and business issues facing the region. The summits main objectives focused on the creation of the APEC community for shared development and common prosperity. The issues that were covered in the program included: Promoting Innovation for economic development; Promoting the development of Information and Communication Technology; Facilitating the development of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises; Attracting FDI: lessons from APEC member economies; Vietnam: an investment destination.
An amazing thing for me was hearing these topics discussed in depth by CEO’s of leading companies and then having the opportunity to discuss these things with Helen Clark.

Our delegation met with Mrs Clarke in a private conference room where the interview was to take place. One question I asked her was in relation to Small and Medium sized enterprises and the fact that they make up the framework of our country and I asked how our government plans to support these companies in the face of globalization and free trade. To this she replied that the issue wasn’t relating to incentives and subsidies but the fact of the matter was that many New Zealand Businesses are being sold to foreign companies before they become truly successful and the issue that needs to be addressed is that many of the Baby Boomers are running today’s SME’s and they are run without the support of a board meaning that there is no one in line to take over the business so it presents the problem of who will then run the company 10 years down the track. This is when they are sold to overseas buyers. She believes what needs to be put in place is a mentoring program to help increase the size and market share of Enterprises and encourage New Zealand ownership.

When asked if and how New Zealand provide foreign direct investment she answered that our country helps Vietnam in many ways which including aid which our government plans to double over the next five years. They also provide education and defense in the form of Peace keeping to what she stated was the Most Dynamic region on earth.

The interview with Mrs Clark was informative and it was great to hear first hand what is going on in our country instead of reading all the differing opinions in the News Papers and other news sources. She said that her visit with the other leaders was a success and that it will all be positive on freeing up trade in the future.

Written By Rachel Helms