The Australia China Business Council has for the first time held an ACT specific event on the back of the annual Canberra Networking Day function.

At the networking breakfast held today Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr MLA addressed the Council, and highlighted the opportunities for collaboration and engagement between Canberra and China, and confirmed the Government’s desire to work closely with the Council.

The Australia China Business Council (ACBC) is the premier business organisation dedicated to promoting business and trade between Australia and China. It is a membership-based, non-profit, non-governmental organisation comprising a national office, six branches, and more than 1500 representatives from more than 700 Australian companies who do business with China.

The Council’s Canberra Networking Day was held yesterday, and is a members-only event which attracts high profile speakers from Australia’s political and business leadership. This year’s event featured the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, five senior government ministers, and the CEOs of ANZ and Aurizon.

The President of the national board of the ACBC, Duncan Calder, has expressed a desire to broaden ACBC’s reach into regional Australia and to set up a branch in the ACT. The Gallagher Government recognises the knowledge and experience of the ACBC event participants and Canberra would welcome and benefit significantly from a chapter of the Australia China Business Council being located here in the nation’s capital.

Higher education and research employs about 45,000 people in the Canberra region, with a quarter of the 40,000 students at our universities coming from overseas. The Gallagher Government is working strategically to identify future opportunities for the higher education sector, and promote it to the world. This will build on the success of the Chief Minister’s visit to universities in Beijing and Shanghai last year.

The Government is also building on the significant business and investment linkages between the Territory and China. Canberra’s knowledge-intensive businesses have a great deal to offer in terms of exports to China, while the large-scale infrastructure projects in coming years, such as Capital Metro and City to the Lake, offer considerable investment opportunities.

The Canberra-Beijing sister city relationship is a further key focus, and the Government will continue its trade mission program to Asia and return to China regularly.

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