Cook Islands and China have agreed to cooperate on blue economy investments, including new port wharves and deep sea minerals development, under a newly signed memorandum of understanding (MoU).

The Deepening Blue Economy Cooperation signed between the two countries last week will also encourage and support businesses to jointly establish marine economic cooperation parks and deep-sea fishing bases.

Through the MoU signed in Harbin, China, following Prime Minister Mark Brown’s meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, the two countries will be “jointly building a maritime community with a shared future … based on the goodwill and needs of businesses of both countries”.

According to the MoU, the Cook Islands and China will encourage businesses to conduct investment cooperation in the blue economy, including but not limited, to the following fields or industries:

• Mariculture, distant water fishing, seafood processing, etc.;
• Marine biopharmaceutical, marine engineering technology, seawater desalination, marine salt industry, etc.;
• Port wharves, shipbuilding and ship repair, ocean transportation, etc.;
• Marine tourism and leisure services;
• Marine Conservation programmes and marine environmental sustainability initiatives;
• Photovoltaic, wind power, tidal power and other clean energy transmission networks; and
• Exploration and development of deep sea mineral resources.

PM Brown said there have been “no commitments made as yet” regarding any investments or projects in the blue economy.

“This is the opening of the doors to allow communications and dialogue and collaboration to take place,” he told local media on Wednesday.

Brown reiterated the government’s plan to bring each of the islands into the wider Cook Islands economy.

“We need to build the infrastructure to enable that, so harbours and ports need to be upgraded, airports need to be sealed so that we can have better connectivity with better flights, cheaper fares to the Pa Enua,” he said.

“These are the potential projects that we’re looking at, particularly in our Pa Enua, for engagement and collaboration to help us lift the standards of connectivity between our islands.”

Brown, who is also the Minister for Finance, said there were a number of harbours that needed upgrading, and “they’ve got to be done in a way that is affordable to us”.

He said that any cooperation on infrastructure investment with China would use the public works model the government adopted for the Manihiki Airport upgrade “to fit within the appropriation budget that we have”.

A public works model is where an agency takes primary responsibility for the management, delivery and, where applicable, completion of a works project or public services, rather than contracting with a prime contractor (or similar) to undertake such responsibility. According to the government, a public works model may be used where it is a more efficient and more cost-effective method of completing public works or providing public services instead of procuring it from the private sector.

Cook Islands and China will establish an Investment Cooperation Working Group under the Cook Islands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration and the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, as the executing agencies of the MoU, to increase policy exchanges, implement the work set out in this Memorandum and promote investment cooperation in the blue economy in a “more pragmatic and efficient manner”.

This MoU came into effect on the date of signature (last week) and remain in effect for five years. Either party may terminate this memorandum by providing written notification to the other party three months in advance.  However, the termination of this Memorandum will not affect the completion of any cooperation activity which has been formalised while it was in force.

Cook Islands government has also released the MoU for the Blue Partnership in Seabed Minerals Affairs – “an agreement to strengthen collaboration on seabed mineral research, capacity building and environmental sustainability” and agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation – “a grant aid agreement providing RMB ¥20 million Yuan (approximately NZ$4.6 million) in support of mutually agreed, and still to be determined, development projects in the Cook Islands”.

The agreements with China have irked New Zealand, which has raised concerns over a lack of consultation from the Cook Islands.

In a statement last night, a spokesperson for New Zealand Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, said: “We will now analyse the contents of these agreements - focusing on the implications they have for New Zealand, the Cook Islands people and the Realm of New Zealand.”

Also read: Cook Islands’ China deal tests limits of NZ partnership