ASIA MEDIA CENTRE BUSINESS FORUM: “SUCCESS IN CHINA”

22nd March 2002

 


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Business Networking in the Asia Pacific Region

Mr Liu Chen Lik, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Australia China Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New South Wales, ACCCI, I thank the Asia Media Centre for this opportunity to speak to you today.

The Chamber has now existed for almost 26 years and operates throughout Australia and New Zealand and the whole of China including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Chinese Taipei or Taiwan Province.

It is a non-government, non-profit, voluntary association of companies and businesspersons working collectively to develop long term economic linkages between Australia and China.

As you will see on our Chamber Website there are now details on almost 200 Chinese cities listed according to Province and Zone. Soon there will be about 100 Australian and New Zealand cities listed by State and Region.

Each of these cities will in the next few years be analysed according to the four categories;

v      Urban Services

v      Rural Industries

v      Infrastructure

v      Commercial Culture

In this context it is not surprising that ACCCI was asked to make some comment on the subject “Business Networking in the Asia Pacific Region”

Hence let me make two brief observations;

Firstly, most people understand that in the year 2002 we are all global citizens. However the implications are still not fully understood – that is that national borders are slowly disappearing before the onslaught of communications, transportation and other technologies. Governmental power is slowly being eroded by international treaty obligations such as the WTO and various Human Rights Covenants just to mention a few.

Secondly, the massive economic power of private international business organisations is more and more forcing media attention on the questions of both rule of law and transparency, as well as new procedures for good governance, professional duty of care and corporate ethical behaviour. All the disgraceful examples of corruption and poor management that we have seen in recent years in the USA, China and Australia is testimony to this growing global concern.

How can companies, big and small, undertake their business with the guarantee of a “level playing field” which is another way for saying “an equal opportunity”? That is the single most important question for any collective government decision-making in the Asia Pacific Region.

With this certainty companies and investors will feel confident to reach out across national and regional boundaries to pursue the new economic opportunities that are appearing in all provinces and cities of the Asia Pacific Region including those in China.

I wish the China Hi-Tech Week great success as just one example of this process.

Michael C.H. Jones
President 1989-2001
m.jones@accci.com.au