It’s an honour to address this Boao Forum, which now rivals Europe’s long-running Davos Forum, and which does so much to showcase the Asia-Pacific region.
I am pleased to be the fourth Australian prime minister to attend, and will be a regular participant in the future.
On this trip to China, I am accompanied by the foreign minister, the trade minister, five state premiers, one chief minister, and 30 of my country’s most senior chairmen and CEOs.
It’s one of the most important delegations ever to leave Australia.
What better way could there be to demonstrate that Australia is open for business: than to visit all three of our largest export partners on the one trip, culminating with the biggest one?
And to conclude free trade negotiations with Japan; sign the free trade agreement with Korea; and, perhaps most hopeful of all, accelerate free trade talks with China?
With a collective GDP of $15 trillion and a combined population of more than 1.5 billion in North Asia alone, the world’s economic and geo-political centre of gravity has decisively shifted towards our region.
The rise from the ashes of war to economic leadership by Japan, by Korea; and by China – most spectacularly of all – has been a transformation unparalleled in human history.
The rest of the world is rightly in awe of the way these countries have lifted hundreds of millions of people into the middle class in just a generation.
This is the greatest and the quickest advance in human welfare of all time.
It’s happened because governments have allowed individuals and families to take more control of their own futures.
It’s been a practical acknowledgement of the inherent capability of every human being.
I am proud that Australian coal, iron ore, gas and services exports have helped to drive this prosperity.
Australia has the natural and human endowments to give the countries of our region the resource security, the food security and the energy security that all seek.
Australia has the capacity and the reliability to be the energy supplier and the food supplier to our region.
After all, Australia is the number one global exporter of coal, iron ore and beef.
We are the world’s fourth largest exporter of gas.
Australia is fifth in the number of universities in the world’s top 100, and hosts the fourth highest number of international students.
On a GDP basis, we have the world’s 12th largest economy, the world’s fifth highest standard of living and the world’s 5th most traded currency.
And we have first class military forces that regularly operate with the world’s best.
Australia is strong enough to be a valuable partner, but not a dominant one.
Last week, I twice visited the Pearce airbase near Perth to thank the aviators searching for the missing flight MH370.
I particularly thanked the airmen from China, Japan and Korea – who are planning and executing missions together – along with their counterparts from Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
This cooperation in a good cause is a powerful antidote to the strategic pessimism that sometimes clouds discussions of our region’s future.
It is yet another demonstration that the countries of our region can achieve so much more together than apart.
Indeed, the comparison of our region’s pre-war and post-war history abundantly demonstrates that we will all advance together – or we won’t advance at all.
Australia’s preference is always to look forwards rather than backwards; to win friends rather than to find fault; to be helpful, not difficult.
Team Australia is here in China to help build the Asian Century.
China, after all, has taken to heart Deng Xiaoping’s advice that “to get rich is glorious”.
And China should be richer still, thanks to Premier Li’s reforms.
To be rich is indeed glorious – but to be a true friend is sublime.
Australia is not in China to do a deal, but to be a friend.
We don’t just visit because we need to, but because we want to.
Our region and our world need peace and understanding based on international law and mutual respect.
Participation in this Forum has helped to build Australia’s strategic partnership with China which has much to offer each country and our region.
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