Transcript: China insights and opportunities
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Michael Clifton ‒ Senior Trade Commissioner Shanghai, Country Manager China
Michael has enjoyed a diverse and varied career including trade and defence appointments in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka and the Middle East. He is fluent in Mandarin and Japanese.
Prior to his Austrade appointment to Shanghai, he served as Principal Adviser and Chief of Staff to Simon Crean, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government. Fluent in Mandarin and Japanese, Michael’s career highlights include several postings to Hong Kong, three years at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo and four years as Senior Trade Commissioner and Consul General in Osaka.
Transcript
>>Michael Clifton: China is Australia’s number one trading partner, our number one export destination, our single most important source of international students, and our highest valued tourism market. It is a high growth, high potential market which Australian business can ill afford to ignore.
The most important trend in the China market for Australian business is to be aware of the rapid growth of China’s middle class and the fact that that middle class has high levels of disposable income. The Chinese middle class is no different to the middle class here in Australia; they aspire to a better standard of living, a better quality of life in almost every way you can imagine. They want the best possible education for their children, they want better houses to live in, they want better communities to live in, they want a cleaner environment, they want access to international travel and they want access to a broader range of more sophisticated financial service products. These are all areas of current and prospective opportunity for Australian companies.
Australian companies in the China market by and large are not there to compete on price. We need to compete on branding and on innovation. So for example, our food and beverage producers are doing very well in the China market, primarily because of our clean and green image and we need to focus on the positives of that image and the commercial benefits it delivers to Australian companies.
What we’re seeing in the China market today is incredible growth in demand for Australian food and beverage products in particular. Our sales of wine, both in terms of volume and in terms of value are increasing at a tremendous rate. We’re seeing rapid increase in the quantity of Australian beef going into the China market and there are a range of Australian grocery and other food and beverage items that are doing well in the China market, reflecting the fact that China’s middle class is now better able to afford the products in which we specialise.
The China market is not for the faint-hearted. It is complex, it is challenging and the role that Austrade plays is to help Australian companies navigate a course through that challenging and complex market.
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