Chris Freeland, national managing partner, Baker & McKenzie Australia
Australia's diversity challenge
Recognising that Asia doesn’t end at China and appreciating the different cultures is key to Australian progress
The Commonwealth government’s recent Australia in the Asian Century White Paper takes a commendably broad approach to the challenges and opportunities for Australia ensuing from Asia’s rise. Two aspects are particularly welcome. First, it makes clear that Asia is more than just China, focusing as well on opportunities in Japan, India and Indonesia among others. Second, the paper emphasises that Australia’s economic engagement with Asia requires actual connections to be forged between people.
However, the paper could do much more to build on existing strategies employed by businesses within Asia.
The paper’s emphasis on the diversity of Asia is timely. Too often, coverage in the Australian press about Australia-Asia relations is overly focused on China and on resource exports to that country. The minutia of China’s economic rise receives much attention but rarely do we read about economic developments in the likes of Vietnam or South Korea.
While China remains extremely important to Australia, the business community and the country generally should not let this stop engagement with the rest of the region. In this respect, the paper is far sighted.
The paper calls for Australia to engage more with all the countries of Asia, each of which has a unique history and business culture, which requires time and effort to understand. And each of these nations, to a greater or lesser extent, has a growing middle class that is eager to engage with the outside world. In this respect, Asia offers great rewards for businesses that take the right approach.
Language and understanding Asia’s business cultures is a major focus of the paper. Lasting economic engagement, it says, requires Australians to develop personal connections with their Asian counterparts. Australians learning an Asian language is, of course, a valuable thing but in view of the authors, it is certainly not a pre-condition for meaningful business engagement with the region.
While the paper lays the groundwork for a national strategy by encouraging businesses to think more broadly about engagement with Asia, it fails to recognise fully what is already being done by businesses operating there. This means the paper reads as if suddenly Australia has woken up and realised that it belongs to Asia. The failure to mention existing business engagement also makes the prospect of engaging with Asia sound more daunting than it is. In fact, many businesses based in Australia have been engaging with Asia for a long time.
The Asian Century White Paper is an important document. It lays the groundwork for the Australian community to continue to tackle the challenges, and grasp the opportunities, inherent in Asia’s rise. Hopefully, in the months ahead, those businesses already engaged in the region will be given a platform to share their knowledge and experiences of engaging Asia, for the benefit of all Australians in the ‘Asian Century’ .
Readers' comments (4)
Anonymous | 12-Dec-2012 2:09 am
Australians have to learn that you can't live in a neighbourhood and just do business with the neighbours and not want to interact with them socially or understand their cultural perpsective. I meet too many Australians who come on a holiday to Asia or travel here for business but don't live here who show a pitiful amount of understanding of different Asian cultures or their political situations. Imagine a Belgian who knew nothing of the neighbouring countries, their politics or cultures (other than Luxembourg maybe) and you have a geographic equivalent of the absurdity of the average level of Australian disinterest in and ignorance about Asia. Many Asians are now rich enough not to be very impressed by Australia and their countries economically and militarily significant enough not to be interested in listening to Australian sermonising on many topics any more. Australia's economic future and security are dependent on properly understanding and getting on with our neighbours. If not, the future may well be very rough and Australia will have no close neighbours willing to help.
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Muhammad Haque | 15-Dec-2012 8:20 pm
You are appearing to be heading for the correct analytical destination but you nerd to catch up yourself on the realities at all levels.
The start must be focussed back on "Australia". Let us name the Continent after the original attributes.
How about that?
And then you can narratively cross the waters and work out how you begin to understand mainland Asia and the seventy or eighty thousand islands before making your way into the markets.
The ignorance that you are apparently blaming as a recent “Australian” problem is not recent and is not a trivial matter at all.
Ignorance is the foundation on which the “new” country, its “democracy”, its culture and its corruptly founded “institutions” “stand” and operate.
They have got to go and be reversed.
Do you begin to see just how far “Australians” have to travel before they can actually say that theirs is a “just and fair system”?
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Anonymous | 17-Dec-2012 5:51 am
@Anonymous 12-Dec-2012 2:09am you are amazing. Australians should imitate Belgian cultural sensitivity, HA! Australians might not be that up to speed on various Asian cultures but at least we wouldn't slit the throat of our literal next-door-neighbours like a lot of Europeans did during the second world war.
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Carl Blend'n'Roast | 28-Dec-2012 6:25 am
Australians can and will engage with whoever they like. Theirs is an open society. No amount of white papers and soul-searching by politicians will change that. Australian culture is still very similar to that of the British and the Americans: it's multi-cultural, but with a strong Anglo-Saxon / Christian foundation. Amazing news for you: that's not a bad thing and has helped its incredible success as a nation.
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