Award-winning restaurateur Michael Meredith is set to take his culinary expertise to the skies as Air New Zealand’s newest consultant chef. Renowned for his adventurous approach to food and degustation menus at Auckland’s fine dining restaurant Merediths, the Samoan-born chef will work with the airline to design dishes for its Business Premier menus. Meredith joins Air New Zealand’s current consultant chef Peter Gordon, of SkyCity’s Sugar Club and The Providores and The Tapa Room in London, who has partnered with the airline for more than 20 years. The role is a first for the top chef, who took out Metro’s…

Alibaba Group, the world’s largest e-commerce company, plans to ratchet up its Asia-Pacific cross-border retail activities with the launch of operations in Melbourne to serve online merchants in Australia and New Zealand. New York-listed Alibaba announced on Tuesday the planned opening of its new office in the capital of the Australian state of Victoria later this year, following this week’s four-city roadshow by company president Michael Evans in the two countries. “A stronger presence [in Australia and New Zealand] will advance our global goal of serving two billion consumers, while supporting tens of millions of small businesses, brands and retailers…

HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND – Gallagher today announced it has been named one of seven finalists in the 2016 AmCham-DHL Express Success and Innovation Awards for the Exporter of the Year to the USA (over $10 million) category. The awards, which are run by The American Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand, seek to celebrate success and entrepreneurial innovation in the export, import and investment sectors between New Zealand and its third-largest trading partner, the United States. The short-listed companies were evaluated on a variety of actual market performance indicators which include revenue growth; market share and growth in market share;…

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has today announced the Prime Minister’s Scholarship programme for international study with be extended to Latin America, as well as Asia. The Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Latin America will complement the successful Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia initiative. Under that programme 751 scholarships for Kiwi students to study in Asia have been awarded since it was implemented in 2013. “The Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia have seen New Zealand students gain valuable study and business experience offshore, learn about some of New Zealand’s most important trade partners, and bring back valuable skills…

​Trusted Trans-Tasman exporters will be rewarded with fast-tracked customs processing at Australian and New Zealand borders under a new arrangement between the two countries. The Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection and New Zealand Customs Service (NZ Customs) signed a Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) last Friday, to recognise the supply chain security programmes of both countries. Australian Border Force (ABF) Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg, and NZ Customs Comptroller, Carolyn Tremain, met at the World Customs Organization’s sessions in Brussels to sign the MRA. Commissioner Quaedvlieg said the arrangement would benefit members of the Australian Trusted Trader (ATT) programme and the…

A Reserve Bank Bulletin article published today looks at the risks to financial stability posed by boom and bust cycles that are prevalent features of housing markets in advanced and developing economies around the world. The article finds that macroprudential actions aimed at mitigating risks from housing market cycles may be justified to help preserve financial stability and long-run economic growth. Read the article: Financial stability risks from housing market cycles A RBNZ press release Tuesday 19 July 2016      

Manufacturers and exporters welcome the Reserve bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ) proposed expansion of existing Loan to Value Ratios (LVR) today – this should give them more freedom to address continued low inflation and an exchange rate that remains overvalued and challenging for exporters, say the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA). NZMEA Chief Executive Dieter Adam says, “We are pleased to see this action from the RBNZ to continue to sure up the financial system against stability risks in the housing sector. We also support their efforts to look into other measures, such as Debt to Income Ratios,…

In a first for airlines in the South Pacific, Air New Zealand is giving customers the freedom to use Bluetooth devices ‘gate to gate’ across its entire fleet. In line with the airline’s commitment to drive innovation, from Thursday customers flying on any service across the airline’s domestic and international network will be able to operate Bluetooth devices from the departure gate to the arrival gate, provided their devices are set to flight mode. This means customers can remain connected with their wearable Bluetooth tech such as Fitbit devices, Apple watches and Bluetooth headsets, as well as operate a wireless…

The program will provide advanced training to smooth the path between the end of pilot training courses and taking up positions, Ardmore Flying School CEO Mike Newman said regarding the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with Batam-based FlyBest Flight Academy on fixed-wing flight training. "What we find happens is often students are only buying the minimum training course that gets them past the legal requirement, and there tends to be an enormous gap between that training program and what the industry is looking for in terms of giving employment outcomes," Newman said. The partnership looks to give several hundred pilots…

The Reserve Bank has today released a consultation paper proposing changes to loan-to-value restrictions (LVRs) to further mitigate risks to financial stability arising from the current boom in house prices. “The banking system is heavily exposed to the property market with residential mortgages making up 55 percent of banking system assets. Investor lending has been increasing rapidly and is a significant contributing factor to the current market strength. The proposed restrictions recognise the higher risks associated with such lending,” Governor Graeme Wheeler said. Under the proposed new restrictions: · No more than 5 percent of bank lending to residential property…

Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. will seek to push sales of environment-friendly vehicles as part of efforts by the South Korean automakers to meet increasingly stringent global emission standards and fuel economy requirements. Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong Koo, who presided over a meeting of executives heading overseas offices, directed them to expand production and sales of such vehicles globally, according to an e-mailed statement. Hyundai plans to introduce its Ioniq gasoline-electric hybrid in the U.S. and Europe, after starting sales in January in South Korea. Kia plans to sell the Niro hybrid in the…