The Centre co-ordinates and promotes teaching and research on Asia/Pacific business and law within the Faculty of Commerce and Administration, and wherever possible, assists related activities at Victoria University and in the wider community. Focusing on the major Asian economies - particularly Japan, China and Korea - it aims to provide a teaching and research focus in Wellington for private individuals and for academic, business, government and other organisations concerned with business and related issues in the Asia/Pacific region.
CAPLAB lays great stress on networking and general liaison with organisations and individuals. Relationships have been developed on various levels with many leading universities in the Asia/Pacific. In New Zealand the Centre works closely with other university institutes and centres, with central and local government agencies, with the legal and business community and with Asian specialists throughout the country.
In June 1996 Dr Beal and Professor McAulay, Director, Graduate School of Business and Government Management, visited many of the top universities in Hong Kong, Korea, China, Vietnam and Thailand. The general objective was to strengthen and develop relationships which had been established in recent years and to promote an active programme of academic exchanges and MBA placements.
In July Dr Beal also travelled to Australia to attend the International Conference on China and the Asia-Pacific Economy, held at the University of Queensland; and gave a paper entitled Korea and New Zealand: A fast moving relationship at the third Pacific and Asia Conference on Korean Studies, held at the University of Sydney.
Professor Tony Angelo, Associate Director and member of the Faculty of Law, travelled to the Tokelaus in April and again in November of 1995 for discussions with Tokelaun government officials, discussing constitutional developments and self determination.
Associate Professor Gordon Anderson, CAPLAB Assistant Director, and member of the Commercial Law Group, recently attended the Asian Conference of the International Society for Labour Law and Social Security held in Hobart, and the conference of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Industrial Relations Academics.
In December Tim Beal gave a paper The NZ-Japan Relationship: Past Successes, Future Challenges,at the conference of the Kansai Society of NZ Studies in Kyoto. This was jointly written with Guergana Guermanoff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Following that he went on to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, to discuss preparations for the Asia/Pacific Public Affairs conference in May.
In April 1997 a paper jointly written with Mimi Recker entitled The Web as an authentic, collaborative design tool for Marketing education was presented by Dr Recker at the Cause in Australasia conference "Information Technology- the Enabler", in Melbourne.
The inaugural Conference of the Asia-Pacific Public Affairs Forum was held in Kaohsiung in May 1997 with CAPLAB as one of the affiliated organisations. Dr Beal presented a paper entitled The Virtual Citizen in the panel "Citizenship in the Modern World". Dr Sallie Yea, a CAPLAB associate from Geography Department also presented a paper.
The 5th Asian Forum on Business Education was held in Phuket, Thailand in June 1997, Dr Beal presented a paper jointly written with Dr Sallie Yea entitled Corruption, development and maturity a perspective on South Korea Associate Professor Pam Swain, Director of the Master of Management Programme and an associate of CAPLAB also attended.
Tim Beal was a member of the international organising committee for the China Business Conference held in Beijing in late June 1997. The conference was held under the joint auspices of Montclair State University, NJ, USA and the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.. Dr Beal presented a paper entitled Greater China: Competition and Complementarity . One of the highlights of the conference was a visit by senior participants to Zhongnanhai for a specially organised meeting with Vice-Premier Li Lanqinq.
Dr Beal attended the Fifth International Conference on Japanese Information in Science, Technology and Commerce, held at the Library of Congress, Washington DC, July 30 - August 1, 1997. He presented a paper jointly written with Dr Mimi Recker on The Asiaweb Project . Further information on this project will be available from the CAPLAB web site shortly. Following the conference Dr Beal travelled visited Dr C J Jayachandran at Monclair State University and Dr Jerry Bookin-Weiner at Bentley College, Massachussets.
Professor Paul Ch'en, Professor of Comparative Law at Tokyo University, visited Victoria University under the joint auspices of CAPLAB and the Faculty of Law. He taught Comparative Law and Conflict of Laws at Victoria University, and addressed other Law Faculties, on topics including 'Law & Trade in China and Japan'; 'Arbitration and Mediation with Reference to China and Japan'; and 'Protection of Cultural Treasures-China and Japan'.
Professor Kichimoto Asaka, a member of the Centre for the Study of Comparative Law and Politics in the Faculty of Law at Tokyo University, has also recently been at Victoria University. He is currently undertaking research on the disproportionality of apportionment in the Japanese electoral system where there is a serious disparity in the per capita weighting of Diet seats. In practice rural votes have a much higher weighting than city votes because of the population imbalances between the constituencies. Japan is undergoing a process of electoral reform but even so the imbalance reaches 2:1. Professor Asaka is examining the NZ system, especially the impact of the MMP form of proportional representation, and comparing the NZ situation with aspects of the proportional representation system in Japan, and the relevance of the constitutions to those problems.
Professor Atshushi Maki, Faculty of Business on Commerce, Keio University, spent five weeks at CAPLAB in early 1997 investigating economic reform in NZ.
Professor Yutaka Honda of the College of Policy Studies at Ritsumeikan University is spending August 1997 - March 1998 at CAPLAB conducting research on changes in the NZ economy.
An important CAPLAB activity is the presentation of seminars, covering a wide range of issues. Most seminars also result in a publication. Recent seminars include:
Reflections of the Origins of the Korean War, by Dr Peter Lowe, University of Manchester.
Professor Athol W. Mann, Dean of Commerce (Chair)
Professor Gary Burns, Assist. Vice-Chancellor (Academic)
Professor Gary Hawke, Director, Institute of Policy Studies
Mr Bruce Brown, Director, NZ Institute of International Affairs
Professor Roger Hopkins, Education Consultant
Mr Graham Ansell
Associate Professor Gordon Anderson, Commercial Law Group
Director and Associate Director, ex officio
Mr Graham Ansell (Chair)
Mr Rod Miller (Japan)
Mr Lindsay Watt (China)