Australia-China 2.0 Q: China has become the largest trade partner and also the largest export market of Australia. So in your view, how to further develop bilateral economic and trade relationship on a stable and beneficial basis?
A: China and Australia have already established a very strong and mutual beneficial trade and investment relationship. We look forward to working with and supporting China’s urbanization and rising prosperity through trade in areas including environmental sustainability, architecture and design, telecommunications and financial services. Every country has its own language for these sorts of things, but what we call it is “AustraliaChina 2.0”, because we think that there is a new version of China’s economic growth model and a new version of the Australia-China economic relationship. That description was first used by our Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Kelvin Rudd in a speech that he made in Guangzhou last May.
What we mean by that is not just a shift from export-orientation to consumption and through that to the services sector, but we are very keen to ensure that our Qture trade cooperation doesn’t just focus on the eastern sea border of China, particularly Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing, but goes also into China’s second and third tier cities. And we see Australian businesses increasingly traveling and developing relationships with those cities. The reason we want to do that is of course it will support China’s central and western provinces to make their goals unto the five-year plan, and it would also provide Australian companies with accesses to new and under-serviced markets. We will continue to work with China on similar initiatives in both directions to ensure that this extremely prosperous complimentary economic relationship continues to flourish.
Negotiations on FTA between China and Australia
Q: In 2005 China and Australia started negotiation on Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Up till now we have held 16 rounds of negotiation. What will be the direction of the following negotiation and what is the role of the Australian embassy in this process?
A: We will continue to negotiate and cover a wide range of sectors that include goods, services, and investment and legal frameworks. And that’s quite complex. Both sides have very large number of officials working on the details of this FTA. What we have now started to do is to prepare for the 17th round in Beijing. While our bilateral trade is very strong (it’s over $100 billion last year), we think an FTA will ensure against Qture protectionism, and the readers will be well aware of the risks of rising protectionism around the world at the moment. That is one of the reasons why we are committed to breaking down trade barriers and ensuring that our economies can continue to grow together.
As with any part of the bilateral relationship, the embassy plays an important role, not much in negotiations, but in providing on the grounds insights and advice during the negotiations and between decisions. What we specifically do is we’ve got the role to build up the bilateral relationship between the Australian officials and the counterparts in China because we can’t reach a successQl negotiations unless both sides Qlly understand each other’s situation and what is possible to negoti- ate. And I think what I am trying to do as a new ambassador is to understand the domestic context here in China in which those negotiations are taking place. And I am very confident the Chinese embassy in Australia will also be seeking to do the same thing.
Width and Depth of Australia
China Relationship
Q: What is your impression about China ? And what’s your expectation about the future of the two countries?
A: I’ve been deeply impressed, obviously. I suppose there is something that impresses me at a personal level. Of course it is a great privilege to be serving here as Australia’s ambassador at such an interesting time in China’s history and China’s engagement with the world. The things that impress me the most are simple things like the friendliness of people, and what I call ― their industriousness, their hard work. Chinese people are famous around the world for being very good at business, grasping opportunities, working very hard and achieving very great success. So of course that is striking to me. I continue to be surprised every day by the changes I observe… there are some wonder Q 1 things happening.
At a professional level, what really impresses me is the width and depth of Australia-China relationship, in the fields of art, music, sports, business, students exchanges... last year we’ve got 106,000 Chinese students in Australia. We had almost half a million Chinese visitors to Australia last year, and those numbers are increasing substantially. The message I get from the highest level of your government is how much Chinese people appreciate the relationship with Australia and I reciprocate that very enthusiastically. So the most impressive thing to me is that I would have 3~4 years as an ambassador, the potential for us to deepen our engagement and strengthen our relationship. We will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year. I am very keen and hope that we should look to take our relationship to a new level during this period.