Page 1494 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
they now have a number of strong links that will help them prepare for the commencement of operations there, possibly next year.
Snedden, Hall and Gallop also participated in the delegation as a partner in Shenzhen Developments, along with Mr Kenny Zhang, Managing Director of Waratah Australia International Pty Ltd. I would add here that Mr Zhang is a great friend of Canberra and Australia and I thank him for his efforts to build trade between the ACT and China. In 2006 Snedden, Hall and Gallop entered into a joint venture with the ACT government to establish a representative office in Shenzhen to assist ACT businesses to explore opportunities in southern China. Shenzhen province, with a population of 130 million, is the economic powerhouse of China. Thirty per cent of China’s industry is located within Shenzhen and in Guanghou. It is an area where there is great potential for the ACT and ACT businesses.
While in Shenzhen, I had the pleasure of formally opening the Canberra office there and I can also report from my meeting with the Mayor of Shenzhen, Mr Xu, that there is considerable interest in Canberra and possible business ties between our cities. Snedden, Hall and Gallop have made contact with a number of Chinese businesses that are investigating involvement in the Australian market, primarily in the IT area. Snedden Hall and Gallop have advised that the mission provided a great fillip to their efforts in southern China and they now anticipate many more businesses will use the Canberra Commerce Office.
There is also growing interest in Snedden, Hall and Gallop’s business migration services after they participated in a business migration seminar with officers of my department. The business migration seminar was one of three conducted in each of Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, with around 80 potential business migrants attending the sessions.
ACTET, a local education service provider, have reported good meetings with Chinese government officials and key education agents. They met with the Beijing international education exchange, and subsequently the Beijing education commission in which the potential for collaboration with Canberra educational institutions was discussed. From these meetings ACTET are confident that growing demand for vocational education and training in China can provide them with great opportunities.
These opportunities are some of the immediate results and immediate impressions of some members of the group that travelled to China with the mission. A full debrief of mission participants has been scheduled for this month, when Austrade and my department will more fully assess the commercial outcomes of the mission and start the process of planned follow-up. Mission participants certainly made the most of their time in China, conducting over 100 meetings to explore trade and investment opportunities with companies and organisations hand-picked by Austrade staff in China. It was a very busy six days and I am confident it will prove to be a very fruitful and rewarding mission both for the companies involved and for our business community more generally.
While the mission participants were focused on doing business, my program was separate but designed to be strongly supportive of the trade and business development objectives of the companies. A significant component of the program in Beijing
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .