Fax from 30/ 03/ 97 18: 58 Pg:
PRIME MINISTER
March 19" 7 TRANSCIPT OF THE' PRIME MIlNISTdER
THE HON. JOHN HO0WARD MP
SPEECH TO AUSTRALIJAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
SHANGHAI CHINA.
E OE
Thank you very much for that welcome. To Minister Liu Qi, Vice Mayor Zhao Qizheiig
to Mr Marc Gauci, rnany other distinguished guests. ladies and gentlemen.. I want to thtank
the China Australia Chamber of Commerce for the forum that it has given rne today, the
first occasion to deliver a speech on my very important visit to China. I want to
ackniowledge the contribution of the Chamber to business and commercial relations between
Australia and China and I also want to acknowledge the contribution of the Australia China
B1usiness Council whose President, lohxi Allen. is amongst the members of the business
delegation accompanying me. Both of those organisations make an immzense contrilution to
fostering good business and inevitably therefore good personal relations -between Australia
-and China.
This lunch brings together a very strong cross secton of the Australian business presenice in
China and I am delighted to have accompanying me on this visit a very senior delegationi of
mena and women who ame leadcrs in Australian business. It is without doubt the strongest
business delegation ever to accompany an Australian Primec Minister alroad and it
underlines two things; my determination to present the Australian Government and the
Australian business community as partners working together to secure long tean economic
partnerships in China and also -an illustration of the diversity of the commercial and business
links that already exist between Australia and China.
It is of course no accident that Shanghai bas been cho ' sen -as my farst port of call as it were in
China. Shanghai is China's pre-eminent industeial and commercial city. It is famous in thte
West for so many things. the Australian business conmmunity has close historical link with
Shanghai. The Wing On and Sincere departmc~ nt stores which have been the main
departmzent. stores in Shanghai for mnost of the last So years were in fact begun in Sydney
by the Guo and Ma families. From modes: beginnings they set up branchres in Shanghai and
Fax from 30/ 03/ 97 18: 58 Pg: 2
How -a r~ I"~; 2A1-P.
in all the major cities along the Chinese coast and today they remain among-the largest
department store chains in East Asia.
This visit is also a reminder to me and indeed many, of the great conitribution that
Austr-Aians of Chinese descent have maide to our nation and to the relationshdp between
Australia and China. There are sonme 300,000 Australians of Chinese descent. My own
electorate has one of the hidghest proportions of Chinese Austrlians in any part of Australia
They have made-a massive contributiou to every aspect of Australian life and particularly
the Shaughainese. Probably the best known of Shanghiainese Australians was the late Victor.
Chang, the eminent hearit suirgeon who was ttagically, murdered a few years ago. He was
born -in Shanghai and later as a child emigrating to Australia.
Australia's business presence in Shanghai is an impressive one. Au stratlian com~ panies have
around 250 investment projects here, 52 of which were approved in 1996 alone. Some of
Australia's largest investments in China are in Shanghai. They include CUB Fosters, which
is developing a new market for beer, an fine example of a well-known. Australian product
being adapted to a new environment. They include the ACI Glass bottling plant, which
incorporates some of the most advanced-glass forming technology in the world..
Other Australian, operations here include Vinidex Tubemeaker's plastie pipes factory,
Suspension Compoaents work in automotive party, and Air Interiational's air conditionin
operation-Boral is currently constructing a large pl aster board factory here the largest
such factory in China. And I bad the pleasuri just in hour ago of anowcing'a joint venture
between Sigtech and its Chinese pairtner, Da Zhong Taxis, to develop a state of the art taxi
communication system. That venture is a reminder of the important role that small and
rnedium-si~ rzd businesses can play in fostering the partnership and winning niche markets.
That firm employs fewer than 50 people and ihat is a fine example that you dont have to be
a large company to do well in such a rapidly growing mrket.
Thesc and other projeccts highlight the scaleof the business links between Australia and
China. In many ways they are a paradigm for our economic relationship with China
generally. The experience of the Baoshan iron and steel works which imports 40 per cent
of its iron ore needs from Australia mneans that many from Shanghai know Australia as a
reliable supplier of raw materials for the industries that are leading China's export growth.
Baoshan alsouses control computer systems which were supplied by Ck Technology in
Sydny; and the materials-handling control systems were supplied by Motherwell Systems
in Perth.
had the pleasure yesterday of course of visiting BHP's steel roll formng laT. BH,
incidentally. has been trading in China for over 100 years. The plant is an excellent
example of our economic cornplernentarities with China. Australia supplied the' primary'
products-it also supplied the high technology used to process those products. So Shanghai
knows that Australian investment can bring to China technology as advanced as that of any
nation in the world.
Fax frraf 30/ 63/ 97 18: 58 Pg: 3
3
Australia and China, ladies, and gent lemen, are very different. It is fair to say, however, that
over the past ten years we have both been responding in our own ways to sudden and
profound shifts in the international econormic order. The same forces oif globalisation,
technological revolution and international competition are driving chanige in both countries.
Both our economics are undergoing fundamenTal reform albeit from different directions
and from different stages of development. I want during my visit to China to discust with
her leaders how our economic co-operation might be lifted to a new level.. In doing so. we
can build on the trust and mutual ktmwledgc that our respective business communities -have
built up over the years.
The growth and increased openness of the Chinese ec-onorny presents enormous
opportunities for Australia. China's economy has been growing at around 10 per cent a yewi
for the past 15 years. Australias ekports to China have been growing twice as fast as our
global exports. It is important to remember that Australia has had a long and reliable and
been an imnportat supplier of commodities to China for very miany years. We supplied
grain to China for many years well before diplomatic relations were catablished and when
others would not. We now supply sixty per cent of China's iron ore import a major input
to China's massive and growing steel-mnaking industry. We are a major supplier of wool.
Australia will remain a reliable supplier of raw materials of quality but we can both gain
more from exploiting opportunities for two-% way investment which would iricrease returns to
both of US.
Chinese companies already have equity in some resource projects. Expansion of ths wvould
be very welcome. New areas of cooperation are waiting to be opened up in the minimng
sector and in LNG, for examnple, to fee China's vast energy deinands. Members o-f my
businecss group have some ver imaginative and-attrctive propositions.
We need to remove constraints-to further growth in areas where we have~ traditionally
cooperated. I am hoping that we shiall be abl e to do this in the wool trade, for example, in
the context of our bilateral negotiations on China's accession to the World Trade
* Organisation
Economic change in both countries has hingllighted new sectors for cooperation. The
business group accompanying me reflects the growing diversity of our economic
relationiship and in Australia's particular strengths in financial, accounting and legal'
serices. Australiani insurance companies such as ColonialMutual Group and National
Mutual are keen to operate in China and come with strong pedigrees-AMP has just been
given approval to open a representative office in Beijing.
In Beijing, I will be opening a seminar being held by the Australian Stock Exchan'ge about
the opportunities that listing of Chinese companies would provide for raising capital. We
aim to show the advantages for high quality -Chinese companies of listing9 on the exchange.
Two Australian legal firms, Aliens Arthur Robinson and Mallesons Stephen Jacques, have
licenses to operate here. Other well-known firms such as Slake. Dawson Waldron, H4unt
Fax fraom 30/ 03/ 97 18: 58 Pg: 4
I 4.
and Hunt, Minter Ellison to name a few are also keen to enter China & Whday e much to
offer. Australia's services sector is among the most advanced in the developed world. Moreover,
it hats mi established record of achievement and contacts throughout the. Asia-Pacific region.
The growth of our two-way investmient links is a sign of a maturing economic relationship.
Australian contracted investment in China has grown strongly in recent years and is now
around $ 5 billion. Australia is one of the top destinations for Chinese investment abroad.
Growth in China has been the result of economic reform and the opening u p of the Chinese
economy which began in 1978 udder Denzg Xiaoping. That gxowth has been good for the
Chinese people, for economiues in the region and for tha world economy. MoreoVer, the
rapid development of trading and investment links between China and countries inthe Asia-
Pacific region has been importanit in engendering a sense of commuhity and4 shared interests
among regional countries. The recent reaffirmation of cbntinued commitment t6 reform by
China's leaders is therefore a very -welcome sign of continuity for China's Auktraliahi
business parters; and for the relationship generally. My firm conviction athat government
works best when it allows the enterprise of individuals full scope to flourish; when it
unshackles btisiness from the often unnecessary regulations and bureaucracy that tie down
the dynamism and creativity of business. In Australia*, my governmenrt has takena number
of significant measures to lift national savings, Ito improvi flexibility and competitiveness in
our labour market, and to lift the constraints on small business.
My government is strongly commtitted to an ongoing micro-economnic reform: programime
which will produ~ c a more competitive Australian economy. That in turn will help the
efforts of Australian companies as they develop their business in China.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am particularly pleased to have 6ad this opportunity to talk about
our economic relationship with China in general and Shanghai in particular. Shanghai will
continue to occupy a special place in the Australia-China relationship. Qur busines
communities have built up over many years a strong reservoir of goodwill and miutual trust.
This lunch is fine evidence of that.
Our links with Shanghai have a dimension that is important to the development of
Australia's overall relationship with China. Our early cooperation through Baoshau has
meant that Shanghai has been important to the growth of pem, onal contacts between our two
nations. Some of China's mnost important leaders, including President Axang Zernin, have
held important posts in Shanghai. In those ' posts, he his predecessors and successors have
come to know Australia well and the contribution that we can make to China.
What I have seen and heard over the past two days hits given me gret cordiderice in
Shanghai's prospects. It is an extraordinary city. It is eleven years since I last visited it and
it is almost urecognisable. The change-that has occurred over that 1I year period is quite
phenomenal1 and it is no exaggeration to say that over tb6 last two days I have witnessed a
Fax from 30/ 03/ 97 18: 58
MW
tiny fraction of the activity that is involved in the area of the world that is iridustrialising at a
faster rate and at a more intense maniner than any other part of thc globe:.
I congratulate those who have been responsible. for this. I wvish them well in the future-I
offer on behalf of the Australian Goverument, the Australian business community, and tbe
Australian people a partnership, a partnership that recognises that there are differences. You
have your way of doing things in China, we have our way of doing things. in Australia.' But
providing there is a mature understanding~ of those differences and that the relationship is
always as a proper relationship between two dignified, sovereign counties should be based
on mutual self respect then there is every prospect that through concentrating ort the future
goals that we may share and concentratifig on the ways which we can com~ plemtent each
other, particularly in the area of economics, comm~ erce and business, there is every prospect
to believe that an already close and valuable relationship to both partners can grow even
more in the future and that subsequentt Prime inisters, of Australiaaxd % ubsrquent business
leaders of Australia can see the associati on * between Chinia and Australia and every start of
an economnic life as being one of the most of natural things in the world,
To the Chamber, maylI take this opportunity of publicly thun~ ing the Vice Mayor of
Shanghai for the very great courtegy that he has, -extended to me wA through him can I thank
the -people of Shanghai for the great hospitality and friendliness that they have demonstrated
towards mne and my party. I have io say to you, Mr Vice Mayor, that walking along the
Buid last night with that very large and enthusiastic gathertng of people, I fell as though it
were February or March of 1996, on the eve of o-or election rather than in March of 1997. It
was very welcome and it was a nice taste of the innate fi-iendliness of the: people of your
city. I wish you well. I come with the goodwill of the Australian~ people and of the
Australian Government.
Thank you-