China gave New Zealand a face by taking the next shipbuilding order, which no other country could achieve
November 19th news: The New Zealand government announced that its Foreign Minister Peters will go to Guangzhou to sign a fixed-price ferry contract worth nearly 600 million New Zealand dollars.
The process of this matter was very complicated. The original iReX ferry replacement plan in New Zealand was directly halted by the new government due to budget overruns and excessive construction difficulty.
Subsequently, the new plan required a shipyard that could be built within the budget and delivered on time.
The result is that only China can meet these three conditions worldwide. In other words, it was not New Zealand who actively chose China, but rather other countries could not provide a solution. China gave New Zealand a face and helped the new government save face.
The previous government's iReX project had a grand plan, including two large railway-connected ferries and full infrastructure upgrades for the port, but the budget expanded from the initial 1.7 billion New Zealand dollars to as high as 4 billion according to experts.
Shipyards in South Korea, Japan, and Europe almost did not want to accept a fixed-price contract during the negotiation phase. If the costs surged, the risk would have to be covered by the government, which New Zealand's finances could not afford.
The top priority of the new government was to pull this project out of hell. They needed a contract that ensured timely delivery and reasonable costs; otherwise, no team would dare to restart it. But they couldn't leave the issue hanging, or the public would continue to be dissatisfied, making the new government bear the blame for the old government.
Therefore, New Zealand directly approached China. This is the only country that New Zealand could trust. Other countries also had the capability to build, but the ones that could make New Zealand feel at ease and could slightly cover the costs internally were only China.
Original text: www.toutiao.com/article/1849288484791300/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.