Page 4095 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 24 November 1993
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Nara, which is the ancient Japanese capital, lies in the Kansai region. It is a region which is undergoing dramatic growth and which is positioning itself through substantial infrastructure investment to be a major economic zone into the next century. Through Kansai science city, the new Kansai international airport and foreign access zones, such as the Asia/Pacific Trade Centre, the opportunity exists for ACT businesses to establish a foothold in the Japanese marketplace. The ACT has many boutique industries, including clothing, jewellery, giftware, leathergoods, camping equipment, wine, furniture, et cetera, which could supply the Kansai region's boutique and small chain shops. There is also potential to market items such as wine, furniture, uniforms and giftware directly to companies in the region. To pursue these opportunities, the Government will investigate the possibility of assisting ACT businesses to take up commercial space in the Asia/Pacific Trade Centre.
Madam Speaker, in addition to the general benefits of goodwill and a greater understanding of Canberra, the mission report details the outcomes in the three areas of education, tourism and information technology. In education, greater collaboration was cultivated between schools and universities twinned with counterparts in Canberra. These, along with linkages established with education authorities and agencies in Nara, Osaka and Tokyo, should see an increase in student, teacher and curriculum exchanges. Of major importance was the signing by the Secretary of the Department of Education and Training of a contractual agreement with Ehle Atlas to market Canberra courses to full fee paying Japanese students. Opportunities for ACT companies in collaborative ventures were pursued whilst in Japan with companies in the areas of multimedia, geographical information system, language training and supercomputer applications.
The major interest from Japanese companies appeared to be in the purchase of technology which would allow them to produce software of a similar standard to that in the USA and Australia. The relationship between the ANU and Fujitsu in software applications for supercomputers was further advanced and will hopefully be extended into other educational and research areas. I believe that Fujitsu has already made a major contribution to Canberra and has provided the technology base on which the ANU's information technology research has grown to such national and international prestige. I will be encouraging the ANU to further develop the relationship.
In tourism, there are opportunities for Canberra to capture a greater share of an expanding Japanese outbound tourist market. This will require close collaboration between the industry and the Tourism Commission in developing appropriate packages for selling to the leading Japanese tourism wholesalers. It will also require collaboration with Qantas and Ansett, who will be flying additional flights into Japan through the new Kansai airport from next year. Whilst in Osaka and Tokyo a very good reception was received from the senior executives of the Japan Travel Bureau, Kintetsu and Nippon Travel. They now have a better understanding of Canberra's attractive tourism products. With further cultivation of the contacts and development of new products, such as education based tourism packages, I am convinced that we can substantially increase the number of Japanese tourists coming to Canberra.
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