E&OE ................................
Well thank you very much Mr Kim, to your business colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
Let me first of all thank the four major business organisations of Korea, for the great courtesy that they have extended to me and the other members of my travelling party in sponsoring this lunch today. It gives me an opportunity to say something of the strength of the economic relationship between our two countries and also address a few remarks about the future.
It is symbolic that only two days ago I opened the Sun Metals Corporation Zinc Refinery in Townsville in North Queensland because that represents the largest ever investment by a Korean company in Australia. That state of the art plant which employs large numbers of Australians is a symbol of just how close our two countries have become and what a great contribution Korean investment and Korean know how is making to the economic development of Australia. That project will earn very valuable export income for Australia and the product will be exported amongst other countries to Korea and generally it represents the high water mark so far of the economic relationship between our two nations.
In introducing me Mr Kim had something to say about the historic relationship between our two countries, the experiences we shared almost fifty years ago during the Korean War and more recently the way in which Australia was able to provide a sympathetic offer of assistance when the Asian economic downturn hit Korea. Can I say in the context of that that Korea's recovery from the Asian economic downturn has been more spectacular and more impressive than that of any other country caught up with that slump. And it's a tribute not only to the government of Korea, to the business community of Korea, but also to the people of Korea that your country should have begun its recovery so soon after the worst of the economic slump hit you.
I know that all of you recognise that the path ahead will still be very difficult. But the recovery is there for all the world to see and it has won the admiration and respect of countries not only in the region, but around the world. And the reason why the recovery has occurred is that your government, your President, your business community and your people were willing to undertake the measures that were needed in order to correct the circumstances that lead to the slump in the first instance.
For our part, Australia watched anxiously as the economic downturn affected many of our friends within the Asian Pacific region. And we count it as an important element of Australia's very strong involvement with the region that we were able to offer strong support not only to Korea but also to Thailand and to Indonesia. Because Australia regards her economic links with the Asian Pacific region as being second to none so far as her economic relationships around the world are concerned. Countries such as Japan and Korea have been Australia's best customers in many commodity and other areas for decades. And it's our desire that that process go on.
We recognise that in this globalised world economy you can only hope to succeed, you can only hope to stay ahead of the other competitors in the race if you continue to reform and to keep modern and competitive your domestic economy. And that is why the Government I lead has undertaken a lot of economic change and reform since it came to office a little over four years ago. We have changed and reformed our industrial relations system. There are fewer strikes, fewer stoppages, fewer industrial disputes than ever before. We have reformed our internal competitive arrangements. We have a more open economy. We have reduced levels of tariff protection, not as far I know as some exporters would like, but even in areas such as passenger motor vehicles we will have a tariff level of no more than 10% by the year 2005. And that represents a very sharp reduction on what the situation was only a few years ago.
We have a very open and beckoning attitude towards foreign investment and those chief executives of companies that have investments in Australia who are here today will know exactly what I mean by that. We welcome foreign investment, it has made a very important contribution to our country, in the past it does now and it will in the future.
Importantly on the 1st of July we will introduce the biggest single reform to Australia's taxation system ever. We're introducing a goods and services tax, more commonly known generically as a value added tax. We're reducing company tax from 36 cents in the dollar to 30. We're almost halving capital gains tax. We're introducing significant reductions in personal income tax and otherwise implementing very significant reforms to Australia's taxation system.
We are continuing with a program of the government withdrawing from ownership of business enterprises which are better owned and managed by the public and by the private sector. I am referring in particular to the major telecommunications carrier Telstra which is now almost 50% owned by individual shareholders, most but not all of them Australians and it remains the policy of the Government, subject to satisfaction of customer delivery capacity and performance, it remains the policy of the Government to sell the remaining 50.1% of Telstra.
We are doing all of these things in the name of making Australia a more open economy. We share with many countries in the world a frustration at the fact that the World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle last year was such a relative failure. As leader of the Cairns Group, we would have liked to have achieved a lot more at that meeting. And in my discussions with your President this morning, I reaffirmed and he agreed our joint commitment to pursuing a comprehensive new world trade organisation round. Naturally we seek to see as part of that greater liberalisation in the area of agricultural trade.
The bilateral economic and social and cultural relationship between Australia and Korea is very strong. Not only have you been a very good purchaser of Australian raw materials and many other products and services, but over the years the relationship at a political and cultural level has developed a great deal. There are some 30,000 Australians of Korean descent and they make a very strong and welcome contribution to Australian society. After being affected by the economic downturn in Asia, the tourist trade between our two counties is recovering. There were 9,500 Korean students come to Australia in 1999. I believe that as a result of the recovery of the Korean economy there will be renewed Australian investment interest in your country.
Ultimately as you better than any other audience knows, decisions about individual investment are ones to be taken by individual men and women in business. And it is not the role or the responsibility of government to dictate whether or not a particular company should invest in a particular project. But it is the role of the government, be it in Korea or in Australia to create a climate that is beckoning and encouraging towards domestic or foreign investment. And it has been the goal of my Government to be one that welcomes with open arms foreign investment into Australia.
We all talk a lot, and it's a reality, about the globalised world economy in which we live. Information technology which future historians I believe will record as having made as great, if not greater an impact on the societies of the world as the industrial revolution has meant that whether we like it or not and I think we should like it, the globalised economy is with us forever. And it is the responsibility of governments and the challenge to the business communities of the world to ensure that they take the best possible advantage of the opportunities that the globalised economy offers.
And it means that judgements made by others about domestic economic performance are more important now than they might have been a generation ago. And that is why what you have achieved in Korea is so very important to your future because it is seen with approval around the world as an example of a country hit with a severe economic downturn having the capacity and the will and the courage to bring about the changes that are necessary.
Of course there is not only an economic dimension to my visit to your country. There is also a political and foreign policy dimension. It takes place at a time when your President has in a very historic move, brought about a dialogue between your country and North Korea. Australia has recently announced the resumption of diplomatic relations with North Korea and in recent years has been a strong contributor to KEDO and has strongly involved herself in humanitarian aid to the people of North Korea. We wish the President well and we believe that the leadership that he has shown on this particular issue is very much to his personal credit and also to the people of your country.
And might I also say that I took the opportunity when I spoke to the President of expressing my gratitude to him for the speedy and effective contribution that Korea had made to the INTERFET Force led by Australia that went into East Timor.
But ladies and gentlemen, economic links are important, political links are important, trade links are important. But the true measure of the friendship of two countries is of course the links that exist between the peoples of our societies. And the more opportunities there are for travel, the more opportunities there are for people in every day life in Korea and Australia to get to know each other, the better. One of the more pleasing personal things I was able to do this morning when I met the President, was to hand him a personal message written in his own language to the President from leaders of the Korean community within Australia. And I was able to tell him that there are a significant number of people of Korean descent within my own constituency and indeed there is a Presbyterian Church in the middle of my constituency which has one of its services entirely in the Korean language. And it's a measure of the diversity of Australia, and it is also a measure of the way in which the people of Korea are welcomed in the Australian community that that should be the case.
I think our bilateral relationship is in good shape, but like all relationships it shouldn't be taken for granted and it needs to be worked on. And one of the opportunities that I have in coming here and particularly here today with leaders of so many business organisations and companies is to say that we value very much the contribution that Korea has made. We value very much the reliable relations between those in our two countries that have done business with each other. You have a reputation as a country and as businessmen and women of doing business in an open, honest and efficient manner and that is something that is very important to us, as I know it is important to you. And it is an opportunity for me to say to you and to the leaders of your government just how important the relationship is to me and to the government and that we will do all that we can to further expand it.
We agreed in our discussions today, your President and I, that we would upgrade the Ministerial contacts between our two countries. We would have formal annual meetings between our Foreign Ministers and our Trade Ministers and we also agreed that as part of the ongoing dialogue in the area of trade we would explore whether there was any scope over time for the development of a free trade association understanding between our two countries. And we have agreed to do that because, whilst both of us remain very committed to and focused upon the achievement of a new World Trade Organisation round, we need to take every opportunity we can between now and when that might occur to energise trade initiatives and trade activities not only between our two countries but generally within the Asian Pacific region.
Ladies and Gentlemen thank you very much for the courtesy that you have extended to me. I am honoured by the lunch that you have put on for me today. I value very importantly the relationship between our countries and I admire very much the contribution that your President and your business community are making to the development of that relationship.
Thank you very much.