Page 1492 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007
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The China mission participants were ACT Education and Training, Air Sine Pty Ltd, Inland Trading Company, Perpetual Water Ltd, Ruleburst Ltd, the University of Canberra, Wellspring Environmental Arts and Design, Yellow Edge Pty Ltd, John Walker Crime Trends Analysis, Lambert Vineyards, ACTECH Australia Pty Ltd, Hindmarsh, and Snedden, Hall and Gallop. This is an eclectic group in terms of products and services, made up of a mix of first-time, emerging and established exporters. The group was very supportive of one another, sharing information and advice readily, and I suspect that as relationships developed abroad a few new business partnerships also resulted locally.
Seven of these organisations benefited from the ACT government meeting Austrade’s fee for service, which was valued at around $5,000 to $7,000 per company. Four organisations travelled with the mission, leveraging the ACT government’s presence in China to support particular projects they were already progressing. It is still a fact of doing business in China that some form of government support opens doors and gives confidence, and I was pleased to offer my direct support at this level. The mission visited three cities in China: Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, spending two days in each.
Austrade always goes to some pains to caution mission participants to focus on the medium to long term and to be patient and realistic about complex markets like China. It can take some time to get established. It is often hard to stay engaged. But, once you are in, the rewards can be immense. So the level of immediate success was a very pleasant surprise to some of the companies and, indeed, Austrade. I will give a couple of examples.
Mission participant Inland Trading Company, who specialise in the supply of premium-quality wines to the world market, are enthusiastic about direct and future outcomes of the mission, reporting two confirmed contracts totalling in excess of $130,000, as well as five new and major sales leads.
For Yellow Edge Pty Ltd, an ACT consulting firm that delivers leading-edge business solutions, agreements were reached to conduct a pilot leadership assessment project in June for 25 staff at the Shanghai-based China Executive Leadership Academy Pudong, or CELAP. Further agreements between Yellow Edge and CELAP include collaboration between their RandD departments, agreements to design and conduct a joint leadership program for Australian and Chinese public servants to be delivered in Shanghai, and the promotion of co-branding and guest speaking arrangements with CELAP. Yellow Edge also reported several prospects for follow-up in Beijing and Shenzhen.
The University of Canberra also reported highly successful outcomes. The UC met with its course partner the East China University of Science and Technology. The universities’ joint master of business administration program has been rated as the fourth most influential in China, and UC has around 420 graduates. The universities are now looking at an extension to this very successful program. The University of Canberra has also signed three new agreements with Renmin University of China in Beijing for articulation pathways to the master of international economic law, the master of information technology and the master of technology courses. In Renmin,
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