Opinion: I was invited to witness a citizenship ceremony in Tauranga recently. Local body politicians have, over the years, told me that these are great events. I am glad I went, as it was the best event I attended in 2025.

About 200 people received their citizenship certificates that day. Their origins were diverse. Pretty much every corner of the globe was represented. There was a Filipino family all dressed up in traditional attire. And there was not a dry eye in the room when an elderly Japanese man pulled out a photo of his now deceased wife so she could join him when receiving his certificate.

The largest cohorts were not of Chinese or Indian origin, they came from the US, UK and especially Germany. German law was changed in 2024 to allow dual citizenship without complications, which explains why large cohorts of Germans have been a feature of citizenship ceremonies around the country.

What impressed me most was how happy and proud each of these people were about becoming New Zealanders. They love this country, and they love their lives here.

I also recently finished a stint on the establishment board for Invest New Zealand. Among other things, Invest NZ is responsible for administering the investment end of the Active Investor Plus programme. This allows those willing to commit $5 million or $10 million to invest in the growth or balanced category in return for residency in New Zealand after three or five years. The programme has been very successful, and we have hundreds of potential migrants keen to invest large sums to achieve New Zealand residency.

Last time I looked, this group had pledged investments totalling about $2.8 billion. They are attracted by our environment, our stable politics, our legal system, our free press, and a perception that New Zealand is a safer place to live than many other jurisdictions.

I contrast the views of these two groups about New Zealand with the way we tend to portray ourselves in the media and domestic politics. 

Our modesty and a tendency towards understatement is part of our national persona. But I worry that we have created too negative a narrative about ourselves. We portray ourselves as being a very small country very distant from big markets. We focus too much on problems. We do have problems, and we do need to do many things better, but we are terrible at celebrating success and excellence – except possibly when sport is involved.

In 2026, I would like this narrative to change. We are not a small country. Our land area is the size of the UK and about 70 percent of the size of Japan. Are they small countries? Our Exclusive Economic Zone is one of the largest on the planet. Our population is smaller than some of us would like, but again, we are not small. By land area and EEZ we are relatively large, and by population and economic size, we fall somewhere in the middle. If we were in the EU, or a state of the US, we would rank in the middle on most metrics.

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And rather than adopt the very Eurocentric view that we are a long way away from everything, I like to focus on our proximity to many key markets: Australia, ASEAN, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan – all important markets, and closer for New Zealand exporters than European exporters. On the other side of the Pacific, we have big markets in the US and Canada much closer to New Zealand by sea than competitor product from Europe. It is no surprise that eight of our top 10 and 16 of our top 20 goods export markets are in the Pacific or on the Pacific Rim.

Though our domestic economy has been in the doldrums for the last year, our export economy has been doing well, even though tariffs have increased into the US and US trade policy has greatly disrupted global supply chains. In part, we have been insulated by the excellent network of free trade agreements that have been negotiated by successive governments. A weaker exchange rate and buoyant commodity prices have helped, too. But this performance also reflects great work by our exporters. They have done a fantastic job in the most challenging trading conditions that we have had in years.

One of the real pleasures of being on the board of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise is being able to meet many New Zealand exporters. Each visit fills me with optimism about our future. Once a year we get the opportunity to celebrate the success of this community through the International Business Awards. As chair, I had the honour of hosting these this year. It was a great evening. Minister for Economic Growth Nicola Willis and several recipients gave great speeches, and many fantastic and innovative companies were showcased.

There was a good media contingent in the room. But that evening, and the next day, there was virtually no coverage. The exception was the Waikato Times, which reported on the Gallagher Group winning the Supreme Award and Paeroa’s AgriSea winning the Excellence in Sustainability award.

A couple of other media outlets ran stories, but coverage was disappointing.

In 2026, I would like to see us celebrating our business excellence a little bit more. I would like to see us focus on our many strengths and celebrate these, too. New Zealand is a great middle-ranked country that has achieved, and continues to achieve, many great things. It is time to stop downplaying our success. Our exporters will need this moral support – 2026 is not going to be any less challenging on the trade front.