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Apart from Presidents Darcy
Carter 1976/89 and Michael Jones 1989/2003, there has been a long line of
Senior Executive members responsible for this function whether in the late
1970s Arthur Locke Chang as Vice President – Protocol, Roy Dissmeyer as Vice
President – Trade and Protocol in the early and mid 1980s, Reg Torrington as
Senior Vice President through the late 1980s and early 1990s, Greg Burns
Chief Representative ACT 1987/96, John Zerby as Chair Trade Policy Committee
1993/96 and then Senior Vice President – Trade Policy and Commercial
1996/2002, and now Marilyn Walker, Vice President – Public Affairs and
Culture 1996/2003 and Chamber’s representative on the NSW-Asia Business
Advisory Council 2001/2003 In all his travels in China
President Michael Jones has sort to brief the appropriate government
officials in Australia prior to departure and to pay courtesy calls to
Australian diplomatic personnel in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou when in
that country. Similar briefings have been made in Canberra and Sydney for
Chinese diplomatic officials, and then to Provincial and Municipal trade
officials in China. In this context President Jones
has just completed his briefings of the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade in Sydney re NSW State Director Philip Green and Business Relations Officer Nicholas Sergi,
to Austrade via Trade Commissioner John McCumstie, Chinese Deputy Consul
General Du Wei and Consul – Economic & Commercial Chen Li, and the David
McGeachie and Lynnette Dorn from the NSW Department of State and Regional
Development International Division and Trade Services Department. Indeed on Thursday 7th
August Mr Jones briefed the China Working Group (CWG) from the DSRD. Those in
attendance were: Ms Lynnette Dorn – Senior
Manager, Trade Services, Small Business Division Mr Adrian Wood – Manager,
Investment Division Mr Eric Winton – Senior Manager,
Technology and Post Olympic Business Mr Reg Fisk – Senior Manager,
Special Projects, Policy Unit Mr Adam Rush – Executive
Officer, NSW-Asia Business Advisory Council, Small Business Division Ms Susan Xu – Manager, Hong
Kong/China, Trade Services, Small Business Division Unfortunately Ms Arahni Sont,
Business Briefings Manager, Communications Unit and Ms Verra Staheyeff,
Manager, Investment Division were making a DSRD China Presentation to another
Chinese delegation and could not attend the meeting. In all these briefings Mr Jones
has stressed four points. Firstly the Nature
of China. China is not just another member
country of the United Nations such as Fiji. In reality it is akin to Europe –
indeed 50% bigger than Europe from Gibraltar to the Russian Urals – and its
30 plus provinces are like countries. Most Australians and including
government officials and businessmen neither have the mental framework nor
toughness when approaching China in its great diversity. Chamber has 27 years
of this type of experience. Secondly a Strategy
for China At the last official count there
were more than 660 cities in China with more to be proclaimed in the next
census. Some cities have virtually the entire Australian population re
Chongqing with 32 million, Shanghai with about 18 million including migrant
suburbs, and Beijing with up to 13 million, and so on. How is Australia to
relate economically to such a rapidly expanding ‘powerhouse’. Obviously there
has to be a strategy for all companies entering the various regional China
markets. In the case of ACCCI there is the Key Cities Strategy developed over
almost 20 years of mistakes and false starts to a programme that now touches
almost 200 cities in China. Thirdly any organisation dealing with China has to have a stable Management
Structure and the Logistics to sustain its commercial and business
activities. China is a long-term proposition with 10/15 year cycles and not
suitable for companies with one year return on investment plans. You have to
have a strong management team with lots of travel and entertaining
experience. You have to be prepared to negotiate projects for years and then
respond to opportunities within 48 hours. Companies with rapid senior level
executive turnovers are not comfortable in China. Chamber has had three
Presidents since 1976. Finally and fourthly, China is a serious of markets requiring very deep pockets for all
sorts of reasons. It is not just a question of having funding, but rather
having funding at the right time and in the right place for whatever
commercial project envisaged. It is “big league” territory with the best
companies of the world in extremely competitive rivalry – it is not ideal for
a “cash- strapped” small to medium sized Australian company with no
experience of the economic terrain. In this respect your people are vital – a
decision to pull out of China can often be the difference for company
survival. ACCCI can help but no promises. The interface between Government
and Private Business in China is exceptionally close with often overlapping
responsibilities between government, party, the bureaucracies, academia,
business and even the military. This reality takes a great deal of getting
used to and therefore the assistance of the various arms of Australian
government can be absolutely essential – something which even some of the
best Australian governmental agencies do not fully understand or know how to
perform. Thus Chamber despite many years
of rebuff continues to try to involve Australian government constructively in
our ACCCI forum programmes and Special Projects, and therefore welcomes the
opportunity to place the DSRD China Presentations on the ACCCI Website. At
the very least it helps Chinese friends understand better the nature of the
State of New South Wales and especially Sydney as the commercial and
financial capital of Australia and New Zealand. Two DSRD presentations are
available online. Click here for list. |
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