Conan Fahey for SBS…

“Despite its cooler climate, South Australia is also an increasingly hot destination for Chinese tourists.

Conan Fahey of the Australia-China Development Company – and one of the main organisers of the Adelaide festivities – says this year the city is expecting to attract more than double the amount of local and international visitors than in years gone past.

“I believe they’ve had between 7,000 and 9,000 visitors in previous years, but this year they’re anticipating a lot more,” he says.

With classes such as chopstick dexterity and Chinese calligraphy, the events cater to local enthusiasts as well as visitors.

Fahey says Adelaide has been able to grow its activities in part due to extra funding allocated by Adelaide City Council in partnership with the Chinatown Association.”

Full Article

SBS has a comprehensive list of event’s in Australia. Adelaide’s  big day is today, the 28th January with Moonta Street the focus of attention. View a great video of celebrations in Beijing and images from the BBC.

Chinese New Year of the Dragon

The dragon year brings with it forecasts of wealth and prosperity. The Business Review says there will be a “much-needed economic boost to the retail sector, particularly in the luxury goods department.” The Australian reports a record number of Visa’s to Chinese visitors. Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said the growth of tourists from China had been 20 per cent a year for the past two years. Chinese tennis superstar Li Na is reportedly responsible for a huge rise in ticket sales to the Australian Open.

Locally, Premier Jay Weatherall said “China remained important to the state’s economic future but the rest of Asia was expected to achieve rapid growth in the coming decades.”  Francis Wong has declared an intention to run for Mayor and says “we need to create more confidence to attract more people to invest in the city.”

It’s a great time of the year to discuss the progress of Australia’s Chinatowns. Sydney is looking for an “artist to develop an overarching concept to guide the design a new public space in Thomas Street, Chinatown.” Background information on the project can be found at The Chinatown Public Domain Plan. Also as part of Sydney’s 20 milion Chinatown spruce up is the transformation of Kimber Lane.

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The Street of Colors courtesy of stuckincustoms.com

This week in China Australia Trade and Business News

South Australia and Shandong Province are Sister States so it is important news that Qingdao was announced as having the highest level of economic strength and social civilization by China’s Central Civilization Office (CPC) at a conference. (Four cities in Shandong given “civilized city” honor).

With China set to quadruple its economy in the next twenty years a call has been made to revolutionise education to encourage the next generation to learn Mandarin. (Why every child under 15 should learn to speak Chinese).

Failing to attract Chinese tourists is a real concern. Discussion at the Australian Tourism Export Council conference highlighted Australia’s inability to compete with Asia (The problem with luxury hotels in Australia) and recent research has identified the need for a ‘unified China outbound tourism policy’ (Australia has lot to do to catch China’s tourism boat). With 80% of Chinese tourists travelling overseas for the first time visiting casino’s it has become imperative to raise the stakes in pursuit of Asian whales.

Discussion of the week: Stefan Halper on the ‘China Effect’ (China marks the route on new global roadmap).

Story of the week: ‘Wines from a remote and sparsely-populated region of China beating centuries-old French wine-producing region Bordeaux in a tasting contest’.

Five years ago TACDC began working with Armstrong Wines. Armstrong led by Tony Royal has had great success in the China Wine Market and continue to increase exports each year.

Established in 1989, and located in the Great Western wine region of the Grampians, in Western Victoria, Armstrong make exceptional wines made only in vintages of excellence.

The original 2 hectares of Shiraz was planted in 1989 producing the first crop in 1992. An additional 4.5 hectares of Shiraz was planted in 1995/96 producing the first crop in the 1998 vintage. Winemaker and show judge Tony Royal produced his first Great Western Shiraz from the 1996 vintage. Armstrong Shiraz is a benchmark Australian Shiraz.
Armstrong developed a video to assist with Wine Marketing in China.

Estate Grown. Nurtured by Nature. Crafted by Hand.

Tony Royal, Armstrong’s Winemaker, is a qualified Oenologist, graduating from Roseworthy College in 1982. Tony worked extensively in key winemaking roles within both Southcorp and Mildura Blass for 14 years. With his experience gained in these roles, Tony was qualified to move on and lead Oeneo Australasia Pty Ltd (previously Seguin Moreau Australia) as Chief Executive Officer for 8 years. In 2004, Tony joined the Portavin team and was instrumental in setting up Portavin’s newest facility in Port Adelaide; he now serves as Portavin SA’s Managing Director.

100th Anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution Dinner

South Australian Chinese community and friends joined together to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution, or Xinhai Revolution. Mr Xue Bing the Minister-Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy attended the celebrations along with other members from the Embassy.

The 1911 Revolution, or Xinhai Revolution began on Oct. 10, 1911 and was led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Kuomintang. It ended one of the world’s longest periods of autocratic rule by toppling the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and establishing a republican government.

Mr Guo Zhaoxin - Vice Governor of Shandong

Mr Guo Zhaoxin, Vice Governor of Shandong Province  visited Adelaide to further discuss economic cooperation between Shandong Province and South Australia and to celebrate the anniversary of our successful Sister State relationship. The Premier of South Australia Mike Rann hosted an official dinner for the Vice Governor and delegation on the 17 October 2011. Premier Rann last met the Shandong Provincial Governor Jiang Daming on his business mission to Shandong on 12 April 2011.

We look forward to further positive outcomes in a wide variety of industry sectors for Adelaide and South Australia.

Tianjin Football Club - courtesy worldfootynews.com

The Tianjin Demons – from Melbourne’s sister city Tianjin in China – will be based at a new $1.5 million purpose built football oval launched today by representatives of the Melbourne Demons, the AFL and Lord Mayor Robert Doyle. Melbourne Football Club chief Cameron Schwab said his club would develop a series of programs to build a relationship with Melbourne’s Chinese community.
The chief executive of the Melbourne Football Club, Cameron Schwab said it had experienced first-hand the excitement of the introduction of AFL into China.

“We look forward to supporting and being part of the AFL’s plans to further grow the game there with our own initiatives, including the creation of the Tianjin Demons to compete in the growing AFL China League,” he said. “We’re also extremely excited about the opportunity that exists to build deeper engagement with Melbourne’s Chinese community, through a series of targeted programs and initiatives.” Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, who is currently leading a business mission in China, said the launch of the oval was a significant step in establishing the game in China.

Tianjin football oval - courtesy worldfootynews.com

Chinese website: http://www.51afl.com/

Ms. Frances Adamson and Mr. Jiang Yikang

In the afternoon of September 28, Mr. Jiang Yikang, Secretary CPC Shandong Committee and Director- General of the Standing Committee of Shandong Provincial People’s Congress met with Ms. Frances Adamson, Australian Ambassador to China. Mr. Wang Min, member of the Standing Committee of CPC Shandong Committee and Secretary-General of CPC Shandong Committee attended this meeting.

Mr. Jiang Yikang extended his welcome to Ambassador Adamson and briefed on Shandong economic and social development. He pointed out that Shandong attaches great importance to the cooperation with Australia. Companies from both sides have had their investment in Australia and Shandong. Shandong is also celebrating the 25 th anniversary of the establishment of sister state relationship with the state of South Australia. He said that there are great potentiality for Shandong and Australia to conduct cooperation in both traditional areas including mining and manufacturing and new industries such as renewable energy and service industry. He hoped that both sides could bring to use their own advantages and realize a substantial and successful cooperation.

Ambassador Frances highly praised the relationship between Shandong and Australia, especially the Shandong – South Australia friendly cooperation. As Australia Ambassador to China, she would like to promote the cooperation between both sides in areas such as economy and trade, energy, education , tourism and etc to realize a win-win cooperation.

Ms Adamson says Australian misconceptions about China revolve around a lack of understanding of the potential for China’s second and third tier cities, as they continue to gravitate towards Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
“But I think there is another China out there in the second and third tier cities and we always encourage our visitors, no matter who they are, we encourage them to go further afield and to develop a greater understanding of contemporary China in some of the smaller cities.” Ms Adamson says that as the rest of the world continues to experience economic difficulties and the global economic crisis hangover in Europe and the US, it “reminds us that our economic relationship is a vibrant one and we need to do everything to nurture and extend it. And capitalise on the benefits of it.”

http://en.sdfao.gov.cn/art/2011/9/30/art_832_14277.html

Sean Keenihan (ACBC), Paul Fin (AACCI) and Jing Li (AACCI) offer Chinese students access to industry in an innovative new program

The China Student and Industry Program (SIP) event was held on Tuesday 13 September 2011. The first Student and Industry Program Event for students from China was a great success for the University of Adelaide Development Alumni China Student and Industry Program with support from Australia China Business Council (ACBC) and the Australian Asian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AACCI).

This was the first year  Paul Finn (AACCI Treasurer) Fundraising & Development Manager of the Adelaide University Development Alumni organised the event for this group and the interest was overwhelming with all available student places (100) being taken up within 14 hours of the invitation being forwarded. The positive feedback means the event will run again next year.

The event was opened with an insightful presentation from guest speaker Mr Jing Li, a University of Adelaide  graduate and Head of the Asian Desk (Adelaide) for RBS Morgans Limited. Jing stressed the importance of networking with the business community well before graduation.

He was followed by Mr Sean Keenihan, another graduate of the University of Adelaide, partner at Norman and Waterhouse and the SA President of the Australia China Business Council (ACBC). Sean recognises the value that international students offer South Australia and provided indepth advice on how to network.

An important aspect of the event was networking with industry experts. Industries represented including international trade, commerce, engineering, manufacturing, education and property development. This was run along the lines of a “speed dating” event – except that it was “speed networking”. The industry representatives sat with small groups of students and conversed with to them for approximately 15 minutes offering career and employment advice and tips. The students repeated the process with 12 industry specialists including TACDC General Manager Conan Fahey who shared his career path and professional experiences in Australia and China.

Conan Fahey with Adelaide University Students

Students sought guidance about:

• advice on getting into their chosen industry
• non-academic skills employers are looking for
• how to take advantage of opportunities
• how to land the important first job after study

Becky Li - Marketing Project Manager at Education Adelaide

The feedback from the students was extremely positive. South Australia’s next potential business leaders know they are pulling their weight academically but sometimes find it difficult to cross the gap between study and their first career steps. The program is recognised as providing an important bridge and will be offered again in 2012.

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