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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (30 November) . . Page.. 3526 ..

MR STEFANIAK: Today, I wish to table the report on the outcomes of the Canberra education delegation to Hong Kong and China. In August of this year, I led a Canberra delegation to Hong Kong and China. Accompanying me were Fran Hinton, chief executive of the ACT Department of Education and Community Services, and representatives of the Department of Education and Community Services, the Chief Minister's Department, the CIT, the ANU and the University of Canberra. Their names are in the actual report.

The key purpose of the delegation was to promote the sale of ACT education services in Hong Kong and China, particularly the opportunities for full-fee-paying students in Canberra schools, universities and the CIT. This delegation adopted a whole-of-government approach, promoting all levels of education and business relationships between ACT and Chinese government officials.

Mr Speaker, the ACT Department of Education and Community Services, the Canberra Institute of Technology, the ANU, the University of Canberra, the Australian International Hotel School, the Catholic Education Office and the Australian Defence Force Academy have agreed to work collaboratively to promote Canberra as the education capital under the banner "Team Canberra". I think that this is an important and effective approach, designed to enhance the educational and business outcomes for the territory of our relationship with China.

My august delegation participated in the Hong Kong education festival organised by Austrade. I also visited the Hong Kong Education Commission and two schools. The figures at that festival were up 12 per cent on last year. In Beijing I met with the Australian ambassador, Mr David Irvine, and held discussions with immigration representatives about business opportunities for the ACT in China and some problems that we had had in relation to Chinese students coming here.

We then travelled to Hangzhou to discuss the implementation of education business in the Canberra-Hangzhou memorandum of cooperation and we discussed arrangements for the Canberra business delegation's visit in November. It was there that the Hangzhou municipal government promised to provide the names of the 20 full-fee-paying students for our secondary schools, as outlined in the original memorandum of understanding.

From there we went to Shanghai and I met with parents of current students and addressed a seminar session attended by between 250 and 300 prospective students and their parents. We also signed a memorandum of cooperation between the ACT government and the Shanghai-Songjiang Education Commission, which covers a large area about 30 kilometres from the business district of Shanghai.

As an aside, members can see in the report a photograph-probably a bad one-of me and the Songjiang chairman actually signing that memorandum of understanding. Unless you can read Chinese, you probably will not be able to translate the signs there, but one of them is actually Fran Hinton's name. The English translation actually read "Gran Hinton"-G-R-A-N. The next time anyone sees Fran Hinton they should call her "Gran".

That was particularly fruitful; there is a lot of potential there. The most important thing with Shanghai was that there just seemed to be a huge amount of interest. With close to 300 prospective students and their parents, I have some very high hopes there.

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