Hospo precinct complete
With next Saturday's opening of opulent, Chinese-inspired restaurant, Billy's, based around a restored homestead, Queenstown's Ayrburn hospitality precinct's complete.
Named after farmer William Paterson, who lived with his wife Bessie in the homestead in the late 1800s, Billy's uses five original rooms for dining, supplemented by a large central bar and kitchen.
It also has an attached 'orangery', or glass conservatory, which seats another 50 to 60 diners amid lime and lemon trees.
The extensive Cantonese-style menu is a nod to the Chinese immigrants who played a major role in the nearby Arrowtown and wider Otago goldrush.
"We thought it would work well for our own precinct but also for the wider market," Ayrburn GM Kieran Turnbull says.
Ayrburn developer Chris Meehan's again employed architect Jessie Sutherland from Cromwell's SA Studio and Alexander & Co for interior design, in close collaboration with his own Winton team.
According to a release, "the venue's interiors are a bold expression of eclectic luxury, featuring velvet banquettes, chinoiserie wallpaper, notable artworks and richly-layered texture that create an atmosphere where history is honoured and indulgence is elevated".
Visual stylist Alex Watts notes she sourced 130-plus pieces of art, 85% from New Zealand, over 18 months.
Reconstruction of the homestead — one of the first homes in the area featuring electric lighting — was handled by The Builders, while Diemarco built the orangery.
Billy's will open Wednesday evenings for dinner and Thursdays through Sundays for both lunch and dinner service.
Added to Ayrburn's six existing hospo venues, "it's the final piece of the hospitality puzzle, and it's the puzzle on the board that kind of fits everything together", Turnbull says.
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NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
On tariffs Malaysia finds itself caught squarely between the US and China
United States President Donald Trump wants to stop that trade. Last week he unveiled a new layer of tariffs — set at a global rate of 40% — on all goods that move through a third country before they get to the United States. The tariffs are aimed at stopping transshipment, a practice the Administration says has allowed Chinese-made goods to skirt punitive tariffs. The policy landed with a thunderbolt in Southeast Asia, where Chinese investment has helped the economies of poorer neighbours grow more quickly. A crackdown on transshipment will be an economic blow. It also complicates the supply chain in Southeast Asia, which depends heavily on Chinese raw materials and components. From Vietnam to Cambodia to Indonesia, officials and executives are rushing to assess the consequences. The new tariffs raise hard questions for countries that have long used Chinese components to make the final products they ship to the US. Does the Trump Administration, which has yet to detail how it would enforce the new transshipment tariffs, want to tax it all? One country offers a case study others could follow for what to do next: Malaysia. Over the past decade, Malaysia rose to become one of the world's biggest makers of solar panels. Ten companies, most of them Chinese, shovelled US$15 billion ($25.3b) into factories around the country, creating tens of thousands of jobs. Then, under President Joe Biden, the US put tariffs on solar equipment coming from Malaysia of as much as 250%. Today, just two solar panel makers remain and one of them has ceased much of its production. The upheaval has been a wake-up call for Malaysia, a nation of more than 35 million people that is rethinking how to power its future economic growth. 'We're trying to think about ourselves not just as recipients of investment, but actually creators of technology,' said Liew Chin Tong, the deputy minister of investment, trade and industry. 'We want to think of ourselves not as a production site, but also as a consumer site with a sizeable middle class.' Officials in Malaysia, who had been trying to work out a trade deal, had said they were ready to work with the Trump Administration to stop companies from passing off Chinese-made goods as their own. But they learned they would be hit with a base tariff of 19%. An additional 40% would be added for any goods deemed to have originated in China. Those are set to take effect this week. The country finds itself caught squarely between the United States and China. Malaysia believes that Chinese solar companies can play an important role in its attempts to increase renewable power sources. Its goal over the next five years is for half of the country's energy consumption to use clean sources like solar power. Warehouses are stuffed with solar equipment that can no longer be exported to the US, and the Government wants companies to sell it to local solar farms. One challenge for Malaysia is that it still needs China's solar industry on its side. More than 75% of the solar panels that Malaysia uses locally are imported from China, where prices are much cheaper because of Beijing's industrial policies that encourage exports. Longer term, Malaysia wants the Chinese companies to restart their mothballed factories to make solar panels for the domestic market. More than any other region, Southeast Asia has felt the brunt of the trade war between the US and China that began in earnest during Trump's first presidency. Southeast Asian countries profited as Chinese and global multinationals relocated their factories out of China to avoid Trump's first-term tariffs. For Malaysia, the aim now is to blunt the collateral damage from the battle between the world's two largest economies. 'I don't like to see us just having to choose between US and China,' Liew said. 'I want to see us strengthening ourselves.' Both superpowers have loomed large in Malaysia. American tech companies Nvidia, Intel and Texas Instruments built huge facilities to make semiconductors, seeing the country as a good location to hedge against the risks of doing business in China. More than 600 American companies invested in Malaysia last year, said Siobhan Das, chief executive of the American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce. Chinese investment has shaped Malaysia's manufacturing sector, and China has ranked as a top investor in the country for the past decade. Malaysia's imports from China have nearly doubled over the past decade, according to Lee Heng Guie, executive director of the Socio-Economic Research Centre, a Malaysian think-tank. It was also about a decade ago when Chinese solar companies began to invest in factories in Malaysia. The factories made everything for export to the US and other major markets like Europe. 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'And then they all went bust or left because they were hit with tariffs from the US and Europe.' Ong of Malaysian Solar Resources said she would not rule out her company going back to solar panel manufacturing, especially after the Chinese Government announced plans to scale back subsidies to companies. Still, she is hesitant, citing the intense competitiveness of Chinese firms. 'I'm worried and a bit concerned about our future,' she said. 'Many Chinese nationals are migrating to Malaysia and they are a lot more industrious than many of us.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Alexandra Stevenson and Zunaira Saieed ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
National Business Review
a day ago
- National Business Review
US-EU strike 15% trade tariff deal; aid airdrops reach Gaza
Kia ora and welcome to your Monday summary of global business and political news. First to developing news, and the United States and European Union have reached a trade deal in the past several hours ahead of the August 1 deadline, the BBC reported. US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held talks in Scotland that involved "tough negotiations". The European Union faced a 30% tariff from August, but von der Leyen confirmed that had dropped to 15% across the board. "We have reached a deal. It's a good deal for everybody," Trump said overnight. "It's going to bring us closer together ... it's a partnership in a sense." Von der Leyen said it was a "huge deal" following careful and tough negotiations. Meanwhile, Trump does not expect to reach a deal with Canada, after hard balling on both sides to carve out an agreement, the BBC said. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his country would not accept a 'bad deal' or rush into an agreement. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. In China, industrial profits fell for a second consecutive month, amid competition and US tariffs, Bloomberg reported. Profits fell 4.3% last month, compared with a year earlier, after a 9.1% fall in May. Exports to the US fell, which squeezed profit margins for Chinese manufacturers. That also risked a decline in business confidence and flow through to lower investment and jobs. In the Middle East, Israel started a 'tactical pause' in fighting in three areas of Gaza to address the declining humanitarian situation, Al Jazeera reported. The suspension of military operations from 10am to 8pm local time every day was until further notice. The military also said it would designate secure routes to help aid agencies deliver food and other supplies. Aid airdrops into Gaza, including packages of flour, sugar, and canned food, were delivered over the weekend. French President Emmanual Macron said his country would formally recognise a Palestinian state in September, at the annual UN General Assembly. BBC correspondent Lyse Doucet said that recognition was largely symbolic and profoundly political. The US and Israel condemned the move. Palestinians welcomed the pledge by France and urged other countries to do the same, Al Jazeera reported. 'We hope it will be implemented, and we hope that most or all countries around the world will follow France's lead in recognising the Palestinian people's right to an independent state,' Nabil Abdel Razek, a resident of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, told AFP. Gaza kids charity organisation distributes food. In other news, Intel planned to proceed with plans to cut 15% of its global workforce, as the chipmaker attempts a turnaround, CNN reported. CEO Lip-Bu Tan said that turnaround would take time, but there were 'clear opportunities' to improve its performance. Intel said the staff cuts were 'designed to create a faster-moving, flatter and more agile organisation'. The company also said it's scrapping projects in Germany and Poland as part of its cost cutting measures. Airline manufacturer Boeing faced the risk of strike action after union workers rejected an offer that would boost their salaries by 20% over four years, Bloomberg reported. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers voted overwhelmingly against the new terms. The proposal 'fell short of addressing the priorities and sacrifices' of the company's skilled workforce, the union said. 'Our members are standing together to demand a contract that respects their work and ensures a secure future.' Finally, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Shengjia Zhao, the co-creator of OpenAI's ChatGPT, was appointed as chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs, CNBC reported. Zuckerberg announced the Meta Superintelligence Labs initiative in June. Zhao will work directly with Zuckerberg. 'Shengjia has already pioneered several breakthroughs including a new scaling paradigm and distinguished himself as a leader in the field,' Zuckerberg said. 'I'm looking forward to working closely with him to advance his scientific vision.'
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
How Chinese capital could drive NZ's infrastructure
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