Cutting edge NZ research offered for Beijing agricultural park (3)

She envisaged the research center would be open to the university's doctoral students from China and elsewhere.

Beijing and Wellington established a "friendly city" relationship in 1994 and formally became sister cities in 2006.

The joint agricultural park was raised in a Wellington City Council paper in April, in advance of Mayor Celia Wade-Brown leading a delegation to Beijing in May.

The paper said the council and private sector would work together to create "a New Zealand-style modern agricultural technology demonstration park" covering 3.5 to 7 square kilometers in Daxing.

Built in accordance with New Zealand quality control standards within Beijing's Green Economic Ring, the park would have the theme "green future and development" and offer preferential tax and investment policies for New Zealand agricultural companies, according to the paper.

"Although Wellington does not have a large agriculture sector, the park would offer opportunities for companies in the clean technology sector (waste and water management, renewable energy, clean agricultural energy and infrastructure), marketing services, tourism, and scientific research. New Zealand is also world- leading in its work on agricultural emissions reductions," it said.